Course description: Recent years have seen unprecedented changes in the world of business and the world of work. Language and communication are now fundamental to the way in which organisations operate internally and compete externally. The ability to use our words well, or communicate effectively can make all the difference between ‘success and failure, collaboration and conflict, progress and intertia’ (Thompson 2003: xi). This module is all about gaining skills needed for the workplace whilst, at the same time, researching how language is used in the workplace. This module will explore language in a range of workplaces, from both a top-down level, looking at the ways companies interact with the outside world, and a bottom-up approach, looking at the language of recruitment and internal communication and the negotiation of roles and tasks in the workplace itself. The module also presents students with the opportunity to think about what they want to do after they have finished at UWE and to explore what they need to do in order to achieve this.
