ILMAACN-Academic Writing for Business Management and Accounting

Module Provider: International Study and Language Institute
Number of credits: 0 [0 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught: Autumn term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2020/1

Email: v.collins@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module focuses on the academic language and literacy skills needed to more effectively manage coursework assignments on Accounting Postgraduate programmes of study.

It is primarily designed for students whose first language is not English and studying on any of the 3 Masters programmes in Accounting with the Henley Business School.  For students taking Accounting and International Management or Accounting and Financial Management (MSc) the module focuses on genres of written assignments such as the written case analysis, reflective writing, and the discursive essay which are core to these programmes.

For students taking Accounting and Finance (MSc) , the module closely maps to the core  modules of  ICM 107, ICM 108, AC M005 and ACM003 to develop academic language, literacy and study skills for successful participation in their degree programmes and completion of assessed coursework tasks.  

The module is non-credit-bearing and designed to support students’ disciplinary study, the expectation being that students will apply the skills they have learnt on  ILMAACN  in their credit-bearing work. Therefore, for the module itself   there is no assessment or expectation of independent study hours.

Aims:

It focuses on the key academic language and skills needed to successfully complete Master’s level (Level 7) Accounting and Management written coursework assignments or Accounting and Finance written coursework assignments and exam skills.

By the end of the module, students will be better able to: 

• recognise and respond to the expectations of the key written assignment genre(s) in Accounting and Management or Accounting and Finance e.g. the case analysis


• accurately interpret coursework assignment instructions/briefs


• employ task-appropriate organisational patterns at paragraph, section and whole-text level


• use a variety of task-appropriate techniques to incorporate and comment on the views of others in their writing


• accurately use the referencing conventions for their discipline.


• employ a task-appropriate register and task-appropriate language 


• critically evaluate their own and others’ writing


• read disciplinary texts employing appropriate reading skills and strategies to critically engage with them


• communicate fluently and accurately within their discipline by building their subject-specific vocabulary and grammar

Assessable learning outcomes:

N/A

Additional outcomes:

Outline content:

Classes will have the following foci :

• Recognising the key written coursework assignment genre(s) in Accounting, Management and Finance PGT programmes  such as  the reflective account, the discursive essay, the case analysis, or sections of these i.e. the Executive summary, including:
  
  
  
  • expected structural & argumentation patterns and how these differ according to task type 
  
  
  • reading-to-write and source use and synthesis processes
  
  
  • how ‘voice’ and ‘stance’ are realised linguistically within  these target genres
  
  
  
  

and in addition for Accounting and Finance students:

• recognising the differences between exam and coursework writing


• preparing for exam revision utilising sources such as past exam papers, and lecture slides.


• managing tim e and planning responses during exams

• Key skills useful to all academic writing within Accounting, Management and Finance :
  
  
  
  • incorporating sources using paraphrasing, summarising and direct quotation
  
  
  • employing linguistic features of textual cohesion to clearly signal relationships between parts of a text
  
  
  
  


• Grammar for academic and professional c ommunication, including verb tense and form, nominalisation, clause and sentence structure


• Lexical phrases for academic and professional communication, including expressing recommendations and making evaluations.


• Building discipline-specific vocabulary knowledge for Accounting and Management/ Accounting and Finance.


• Reading skills and strategies for dealing with a range of academic and professional texts such as  Accounting and  Managemen t cases, and company reports e.g.:
  
  
  
  • careful reading to build gradual understanding of ideas and relationships between them
  
  
  • strategic reading to identify: 
    
    
    
    • specific sources or concepts (search reading)
    
    
    • overall nature and structure of text (skimming)
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Global context:

This module supports internationalisation at Reading by facilitating successful and equal inclusion of students whose first language is not English in UK degree programme study.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

The module will adopt an overall ‘genre’ approach, taking the social purpose of texts as the starting point to explicate organisation/structure and key discourse and language features. 

It also takes a discipline-specific approach to language and literacy development using example student texts and published Accounting, Finance or Management specific sources in classroom tasks. 

Teaching will be learner-centred, taking a task-based approach to :

• analysis of example texts from the target genres


• guided ‘noticing’ of key organisational, argumentative and linguistic features in context


• exercises practicing use of relevant lexical/grammatical items


• scaffolded reading-to-write exercises


• scaffolded written-language tasks 

In the module hours table below:

* For MSc Accounting and Finance students only?

Summative assessment- Examinations:

N/A

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

N/A

Formative assessment methods:

N/A

Penalties for late submission:

N/A

Assessment requirements for a pass:

N/A

Reassessment arrangements:

N/A

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

N/A

Last updated: 4 June 2020