COMMS 200

Writing in the Workplace


Please note: this is archived course information from 2019 for COMMS 200.

Description

Addresses written communication in the workplace across a range of text-types, organisations, strategies and audiences. Focusing on different kinds of writing used in contexts such as government, community organisations, consultancy, professions, NGOs and private business, students will analyse and produce key workplace text-types within a critical framework of analysis and scholarship on writing genres, work and organisations. Coursework components include workplace teamwork and the development of presentation skills.

By the end of this course students will have developed the ability to distinguish between the main types of workplace writing and to determine their mode, function and role in workplace operations; to produce effective, appropriate and strategic writing across key workplace text-types; to work with others on workplace projects and to be able to effectively present results; to relate the type and function of texts to the contexts and purposes of different organisations; and to understand the relation of writing and workplace, including the ability to reflect on the work that writing itself does.

By the end of this course students will have developed:  

  • The ability to produce effective and appropriate writing in the form of key workplace text-types
  • The ability to distinguish between the main types of workplace writing and to determine their mode, function and role in workplace operations
  • The ability to analyse a workplace problem or situation, and to construct a case study by way of critical review
  • The ability to work collaboratively in teams to complete a group project
  • Familiarity with common presentation tools, and understanding of their use and effects
  • The ability to present material, and to communicate in person, with authority
  • An understanding of the relation of writing and workplace, including the ability to reflect on writing as part of the work operation that it facilitates

View the course syllabus.

Availability 2019

Semester 1

Lecturer(s)

Coordinator(s) Dr Stephen Turner

Reading/Texts

Sky Marsen, Professional Writing, 3rd ed. (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, Hampshire: New York, 2013)

Points

COMMS 200: 15 points

Prerequisites

60 points at Stage I in BA courses