English for Written Communications

Course Title English for Written Communication

Code

Status University Compulsory

Level Bachelor

Credit Value 3 credits

Pre-Requisite

CourseNone

Assessment &

Marking

Percentage:

30% Assignment

70% Final Exam

Instructor

Rationale for the

inclusion of the

course

This course are to train students in:

1. recognising the importance of effective communication in daily life.

2. writing for informational and practical purposes.

3. adjusting content and style in writing to suit a given purpose,

audience and situation.

Semester Offered Second

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1. write a letter, a memo, a resume, a report and a reseach paper with a

certain degree of confidence

2. write a good research proposal.

3. write a good research paper.

Transferable Skills

Skills and how they are developed and assessed, Project and practical

experience and Internship reative thinking skills

Writing skills

Interpersonal skills

Teaching-learning

and assessment

strategy

Teaching-learning : Blended mode of learning- self managed learning

+ face-to-face tutorial+ online learning

Asessment strategy : Formative and summative assessment involved

Mapping of the

course to the

programme

learning outcomes

This subject introduces learners to effective strategies in reading and writing

in English so that they may improve their communicative competence and be

better prepared for the demands of tertiary-level academic coursework and

personal communication.

Mode of delivery Lecture, Tutorial, Workshop,Seminar etc

Course Structure TopicLearning

Hours

TOPIC 1

INTRODUCTION TO WRITTEN

COMMUNICATION : SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES

1.1 Introduction to communication

1.2 Problems in communication

1.3 The Communicator’s Behaviour

1.4 Written Communication

1.5 Helping other people to communicate with you

1.6 Communication with people at all organisational levels

1.7 Communicating with groups

1.8 When written communication is most important.

4

TOPIC 2

LETTER WRITING

2.1 The Basics of Letter Writing

2.2 The Formal Letter

2.3 Letter writing activities

2.4 Formal Replies and Follow-ups

3

TOPIC 3

MODELS OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION : THE

ELEMENTS OF GOOD COMMUNICATION

MODELS

3.1 Clauder E. Shannon’s Model

3.2 Roman Jacobson’s Model

3.3 A model based on Ulric Neisser’s work

3.4 A model based on Michael Polanyi’s work

3.5 Some ideas about communication

3

TOPIC 4

REPORT WRITING

4.1 The process of preparing a report

4.2 The report style

4.3 The writing style

4.4 Report introduction

4.5 Author’s checklist

4.6 Format

4

TOPIC 5

THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS WRITING

5.1 The Language of Business Writing

5.2 The Format of Business Letters

5.3 Business Letters

3

TOPIC 6

SHORT FORMS OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

6.1 E-mails

6.2 Memorandum and executive summaries.

3

TOPIC 7

PERSUASIVE WRITING

7.1 Types of Persuasive Writing

7.2 Persuasive strategies

7.3 The reasoning process

7.4 Direct and indirect patterns of organisation

7.5 Voice and credibility

6

TOPIC 8

WRITING AND PRESENTING PROPOSALS

8.1 Definitions of terms: proposals and feasibility studies

8.2 Writing a proposal

8.3 Proposal writing to fit the needs of organisation or

clients

8.4 Informal and formal proposals

8.5 Funding of proposals

8.6 Feasibility studies and reports

6

TOPIC 9 THE FUNDAMENTALS OF WRITING A

RESEARCH PAPER

9.1 Researching for a paper

6

9.2 What is a research paper

9.3 Choosing a topic

9.4 Research and analysis

9.5 Research sources

9.6 Looking for a paper

9.7 Looking for materials

9.8 The craft of note-taking

9.9 Writing a research paper

9.10 Looking at different sets of research papers

9.11 Writing your research paper in four steps

9.12 Referencing and editing

TOPIC 10

WRITING COLLABORATIVELY

10.1 Stages in collaborative writing

10.2 Team communication

10.3 Team building

10.4 Analysis of task

10.5 Management of time/writing/documents

10.6 Managing collaborative writing projects

10.7 Practice in writing step-by-step instructions

10.8 Conflict management

10.9 Collaborative writing practice

10.10 Preparing manuals and other forms of team writing

10.11 Style and format of writing

10.12 Writing as a group

7

TOTAL 45

Mapping of the

course to the

programme aims

This course is designed to match the following programme

aims(s):

To help students prepare for diverse and interesting

career opportunities in any industries as well as for

educational advancement

This course is designed to match the following programme

Mapping of the

course to the

programme

learning outcomes

outcomes:

Advance their professional career and educational

studies.

References Main

Hacker, D. (2003) “A Writer’s Reference”. 5th.Edition.

Boston/New York: Bedford/St.Martin’s

Pearsall T.E. and A.H. Cunningham. “How to Write for the

World OG Work”. 6th edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart

and Wincton, 2000.

Addition

Adelstein,M.E. Pival, P.J. (1984). ”The Writing

Commitment”. 3rd Edition. San Diego: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich Publishers

Jewinski,E. & Jewinski, J. (1990). “How to Write an

Executive Summary”. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press

Kennedy,M.L. and Haley, M.Smith (2002). “Reading and

Writing in the Academic Community with 2001 APA

Guidelines”. 2nd. Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Millward, C. And Jane Flick (1998).” Handbook For

Writers”. 3rd Edition. Toronto: Harcourt Brace and

company

Pfeiffer, W. (1994). “Technical Writing: A Practical

Approach”. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Inc.