LSP127 Professional Communication LP3 VT24 (1.5 hp)

The course is offered by the department of Communication and Learning in Science.

Contact details

• Carina Sjöberg Hawke, examiner and teacher: carsjobe@chalmers.se  
• Sindija Franzetti, teacher: sindija@chalmers.se 

If you need to get in touch with us, we'd rather that you email us via Canvas' Inbox (this helps us see clearly which course it is from and retain a clear record of our communication).

Course purpose

The purpose of the course is to prepare the students to use English as a working language by focusing on a number of professional situations that the students are likely to meet in their future working life and that are likely to demand a high level of English proficiency and good communicative skills in speech and writing. The course focuses on enabling students to write professional texts in English.

Course design

This course delivers relevant information and material via five 2-hour seminars which consist of mini-lectures and workshops. The course includes both written and oral exercises. Written exercises include writing a popular science text and a CV. Oral exercises include an oral presentation of a group text and also include class discussions. Some material may need to be read or viewed out-of-class; in this case, the material will be accessible via Canvas.

Schedule

While you are welcome to access the general TimeEdit schedule, the most up-to-date and more detailed information can be found on each session page; the schedule overview below will also be useful to you, and there you can click on links to the session pages.

Course literature

Course literature consists mostly of PowerPoint slides and handouts from sessions, and these will be accessible via each session page. Any other extra material will be either provided via the session page or the different assignment modules.

Learning objectives

After completion of this course, the student should be able to:

• • Prepare relevant documents for professional purposes, e.g. a popular science text.
  • Adapt and present information for oral communication contexts.
  • Structure information in a CV to make a strong impression.

Changes made

Changes from the last couple of years:

• Classes have been moved to Johanneberg Campus instead of Lindholmen because it was observed that some courses that followed this one were at Johanneberg and would have caused commuting and late arrival issues, or perhaps no attendance on this course at all.
• The examiner is aware of a number of course clashes and has tried to make the course as available as possible, including creating three potential dates for presentation sessions that can be chosen, and compensation tasks for those that can't come to obligatory sessions.
• One session instead of half a session is devoted to the CV workshop. This aims to give the students more insight into targeting their audience and to help them be as finished with their assignment as possible by the end of the workshop.
• Presentation sessions have been moved to the exam week for various logistical reasons (time to prepare a presentation, when the written task is due in, and teachers' schedule).

Examination form

The course is graded Pass/Fail, and all elements listed below are graded Pass/Fail. Some assignments occur during class. If you miss a session in which an assignment is completed in class, you will be contacted to compensate for the missed assignment. Compensation activities will be completed individually, not in groups. For more information about each assignment, please see the module devoted to that assignment.