BUSINESS COMMUNICATION II: COMMUNICATING WITH CUSTOMERS - 2022/3

Module Overview

Businesses communicate with customers in a variety of ways (e.g traditional advertising, social media and other forms of technology-mediated communication) and for a variety of purposes. This includes advertising, but also customer relations.
This module helps students develop knowledge of, and skills in using the analytical tools for describing how businesses communicate with customers through a variety of media. They will also learn how to use empirical analysis to consult businesses on how to implement changes to their advertising and customer relations strategies.

Module provider

School of Literature and Languages

Module Leader

DIPPOLD Doris (Lit & Langs)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative module content:

- Introduction to written modes of business communication

- Communicating with customers through technology

• Social media and chatbots


• projecting emotional presence


• creating trust and alignment

• linguistic resources


• moves and structure


• rhetoric


• how words and images create meaning

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

If the original presentations were given as group presentations, students will submit give an individual recorded presentation.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply theoretical concepts to the analysis of various forms of written communication in business settings and to make evidence-led recommendations to companies.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of two items:

- 15 minute individual or 20 minute group presentation (addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3)

- 2000 word report (addresses learning outcomes 2, 3, 4)

Formative assessment / feedback

Students will prepare the group presentation during a field work day during which they will have the opportunity to revise core concepts covered to date and apply them to their data. In addition, feedback will be provided throughout the class on practical, data-driven exercises. Students will be able to discuss their plans for the presentation and the written assignment with the module tutor.

Module aims

• To introduce students to the key analytical tools to describe techniques in written advertising and technologically mediated communication, including social media
• To provide students with the ability to analyse these texts using these analytical tools
• To equip students with the ability to recommend changes to the strategies adopted by companies.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to apply theoretical concepts in a practical manner and discuss their ideas with others. The module is taught primarily in seminar-style, with lecture-type input by the tutor which is followed by practical examples and exercises. Students will be encouraged to discuss self-generated or collected examples.

The module also includes two additional one hour skills-based sessions, aimed at developing the skills necessary to engage in the assessments.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: CMCM066

Other information

N/A

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2022/3 academic year.