LSP127 Professional Communication
LP3 VT25 (1.5 hp)

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

Contact details

• Examiner and teacher: Carina Sjöberg Hawke carsjobe@chalmers.se  
• Teacher: Sindija Franzetti 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 students to use English as a working language by focusing on communicating technical knowledge to an audience without that technical understanding, which demands a high level of English proficiency and good communicative skills.

Learning objectives and syllabus

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

• LO1: Plan, write, and develop a coherent text about a technical subject targeting a specific audience.
• LO2: Plan, create, adapt, and develop a coherent oral presentation on a technical subject targeting a specific audience.
• LO3: Use a process-oriented approach to written and oral presentation work as a strategy for improving communicative competence.
• LO4: Structure information in a CV to make a strong impression to the intended audience.

Course design and schedule

A specific study sequence has been designed for this course. Seminars and tasks have been planned so that they should be performed in a specific order, one after the other. Consequently, all the seminars and tasks are obligatory. Most content relates to the text and presentation tasks, which are done in groups of 3. However, one of the seminars is independent from those but it is still obligatory, as it involves achieving the fourth learning objective, regarding CV structure and audience impression. 

Here is a visual of the study sequence: The study sequence.

While you are welcome to access TimeEdit as usual for time and room details, content details for each seminar and related materials can be found on each seminar page. 

Assignments
This course focuses on process and feedback rather than end products.  For example, although there will be a final submission for the text, it is not expected to be a final publishable product but rather a complete, proofed final draft, which has gone through a drafting process. Performing a presentation has also been removed from the course. Instead, the attention is on creating and developing the presentation based on your text, with a focus on slide design. Through all this, you will work on self-regulation of your writing and presentation creation, involving strategies like annotating, feedback seeking and self-reflecting. The assignments are:

• a popular science text written in a group of 3 which goes through a drafting and review process,
• a presentation based on the text (not performed), also done in your group of 3, which also goes through a drafting and review process,
• and a submission at the end of the CV workshop - individual. 

N.B. All assignments are put through Inspera Orignal, the web-based service for detecting plagiarism.

Changes made since the last occasion

• We have reduced the number of sessions from 5 to 4.
• We have been unlucky in this course's scheduling in the TIELL and TIDAL programmes to almost always have the Monday 8am slot. We have tried to change this where possible.
• There was feedback from the students last year that there wasn't enough time for the genre analysis in session 1, which we realised ourselves too. After reviewing our course setup, we have chosen to have course intro information, usually given in the first session, as material outside of the classroom, i.e. only in Canvas, for students to access in their own time and pace before we meet for the first session.
• Some adjustments to the CV workshop to make it clearer in places and more manageable for the time available.

Course literature

Course literature consists mostly of PowerPoint slides and handouts from seminars. The following documents and pages are also relevant:

• LSP127 Electro and Data Engineering Magazine.pdf - scenario and requirements for the text you'll write
• LSP127 Presentation task guidelines.pdf
• How to write a CV
• CV style guide
• Action verb list for CV writing

For the CV workshop, good to have a version of your CV to bring to the workshop.

And for extra support: writing@chalmers.

Examination form

There is no written exam. The course is graded Pass/Fail. To pass, all items in the table below must be attended/carried out and relevant requirements achieved.

• Deadlines: it is important to keep to the deadlines. Any issues with meeting the deadlines, please speak to or email the teachers. 
• Revisions: should assignment requirements not be met, revisions will be requested. Further details under each assignment.
• Participation and compensation tasks: in order to achieve the course learning objectives, active participation in the course and attendance in the seminars are expected. Please speak to or email the teachers if there are attendance issues. A suitable compensation task (to be completed individually) will be distributed for any seminar missed after the session.