Communication Skills and Report Writing

Government College University

Department of Computer Science

Course title: Communication Skills and Report Writing

(Semester-II, BSCS Program)

Course Code:

Course Duration: 16 weeks

Course Structure 3 (3+0)

Course Instructor: Saima Jabeen

Course Description:

The purpose of communication is to get our message across to others. By successfully doing this, we convey our thoughts and ideas effectively. To do this, we must understand what our message is; what audience we are sending it to, and how it will be perceived. We must also weigh-in the circumstances surrounding our communications, such as situational and cultural context. Considering all these factors while communicating is extremely essential and paramount to progressing.

This course has been designed to provide the learners (prospective professionals) with thorough training necessary to develop competence in communication skills and technical writing.

The training will focus all written forms of technical and business correspondence–––especially letters, memos, and reports. These techniques include organizing ideas, choosing the right words to express those ideas, writing effective sentences, revising to improve the message, proofreading to assure error-free final messages and effectively presenting the information orally.

Course Goals:

The goals of the course are to enable the learners to:

learn and practise different formats of technical and business writing: letters, memos, and reports using the given sample documents.

write correctly and according to the format requirement in the mock-real scenarios.

learn how to adopt audience-, purpose-, and content-based approach while writing.

increase awareness about communication process and characteristics of effective communication

present and communicate themselves effectively in dialogues, speeches, meetings, interviews, telephone conversation and presentations

practise all the four skills namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing

exercise language usage principles

Teaching-Learning Methodology

Assessment mode

Assessment will be based on the following:

Study Material:

Learners will be provided handouts and exercises prepared by the course instructor during the sessions. This study material has been prepared by consulting the books mentioned in the references.

Assignments

For reinforcing their learning and ensuring continuous practice, the learners will be given homework every week. The nature of the home assignment will be according to the work done in the class. Hence the instructor will try her best to give regular feedback on these assignments in order to keep a track of students’ performance and improvement.

Project:

During the course the students will be given a final project based on various professional life scenarios and a long report to be submitted at the end of semester.

Reference Books:

Business English and Communication, Clark, Zimmer, Tinervia

Business Communication Today. Bovee, Thill Schatzman

Business Communication Design. Pamela Angell.

Business Communication, Concepts, Cases and Applications, Pd Chaturvedi, Mukesh Chaturvedi

Cambridge 1, 2, 3, 4 , Cambridge University Press

Headway Series

Great Business Writing. Suzanne Sparks FitzGerald

Model Business Letters. L. Gartside

Research Methods. L. R. Gay

Speaking effectively, Jeremy Comfort, P. Rogerson, Trish Scott, Derek Utley

The Art of Public Speaking, Stephen E. Lucas

CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES

Commencement of the Semester: March 2008

Statement of Assignments

Course GGA Matrix:

Interactive Teaching and Learning Strategies	Individualized, Independent Study
Classroom Presentations	Small Group Collaboration
Skills Development Exercises	Handouts

Tests (Mid- and End-term)	70 %
Presentations & Class participation (performance in all the class and home assignments)	30 %

Week	Contents	Teaching and Learning Strategies (Tasks/Activities)
	Briefing about the course. Course outline to be distributed, Basic communication process and principles, Active listening	Individual work on task sheet
	Intro to forms of communication, Internal communication: formal, informal, External communication: formal, informal, Verbal communication, Non-verbal communication, Writing for different audience (audience analysis)	Individual work on task sheet, Group and pair activities
	Considering “Seven Cs” while writing, Writing for various purposes	Listening to the tape recording, Work on exercise sheets
	Letter writing ,Letter parts	Handouts and task sheets
	Letter formats, Types of letters: every day, persuasive, bad news letters	Group presentations, Individual work on task sheets
	Practice of various types of letter	Individual work
	Ways of conducting and attending meetings ,Feedback on writing skill, Grammar: error correction	Listening to the tape recordings Group work
	Adjusting tone in writing , Practice of language usage principles	Work on task sheet
	Mid Term examination	Mid Term Exam
	Marked papers of Mid Term exam to be returned to students, Feedback on mid-term, Memo writing	Class exercise
	Types of reports, Practice writing various types of reports	Handouts, Work on task sheets
	Giving formal presentations, Report writing	Listening to the tape recording, Group work & class presentations
	Contents of long reports, Introduction to research methodology	Exercises and assigning of final projects
	Literature survey and data analysis, Avoiding plagiarism Research documentation: APA format	Handouts, Class exercise
	Preparing resumes, Interviewing skills	Class exercise, Pair and group work
	Final project presentations, Submission of long reports	Group presentations
	End Term exam	End Term Exam

Course Code/Title: Program:
Teacher’s Name	Saima Jabeen
Assignment –1
Week/Date of Assignment	Week 4
Date of Submission	To be submitted after a week
Details of Assignment	Letter writing
Assignment – 2
Week/Date of Assignment	Week 7
Date of Submission	To be submitted after a week
Details of Assignment	Minutising the meetings
Assignment – 3
Week/Date of Assignment	Week 12
Date of Submission	To be submitted after a week
Details of Assignment	Short report in memo format
Assignment – 4
Week/Date of Assignment	Week 14
Date of Submission	To be submitted after a week
Details of Assignment	Formal presentations and resumes

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Language, communication and IT literacy

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Intellectual capacity to think

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Contextual approach and interdisciplinary exploration

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Global and cultural awareness

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Research, self management and learning skills

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Teamwork and leadership skill

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Professional programme skill

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Emotional Intelligence Quotient

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