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What you will study

The course is divided into three units. Throughout the units, the emphasis is on becoming more aware of how the language we use in the workplace affects and is affected by the relationships we have with others and how we are perceived at work. There are many ways of saying the same thing: how we choose to say it will likely vary depending on the circumstances of our interaction. Through this course, you’ll tap into the implicit knowledge you already have about different ways of communicating and discover the conceptual and analytical strategies that allow you to systematise this knowledge.

Unit 1: Requesting and asking

You’ll first be introduced to the ‘thinking toolkit’ underpinning the course. These core concepts from linguistics will help you frame the ideas around your professional communication. You’ll then focus on the communicative acts of requesting and asking in workplace emails, reflecting on the features that make a request more likely to be agreed to. Using real examples from email communications between Hillary Clinton and her collaborators, you’ll explore how interlocutors balance considerations of politeness and clarity in pursuit of their professional goals.

Unit 2: Offering and refusing

You’ll consider agreeing to or offering to do something or refusing a request. Working through examples from a variety of workplaces, you’ll examine how we can limit our availability to protect our time and which linguistic strategies help us strike a balance between competence and politeness.

Unit 3: Feedback, advice, and talking about problems

In the final unit, you’ll look at how to approach ‘tricky topics’ in the workplace – discussing problems, giving advice, and providing suggestions, whether solicited or unsolicited. Using real emails exchanged between Dr Anthony Fauci and members of the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ll reflect on how you can provide advice without giving offence. You’ll also consider different ways of exchanging feedback when collaborating on shared documents and how to ensure this is done efficiently and respectfully. Using emails from the Hillary Clinton database, you’ll look at the typical components of problem-oriented messages and how to present problems and solutions in the workplace while projecting professionalism and empathy.

You will learn

By the end of this course, you will have enhanced your:

• ability to assess the key features of a piece of communication and identify the most relevant aspects
• communication skills and your ability to present information accurately and appropriately for your subject, purpose and audience
• knowledge of effective communication strategies and the ability to select the most appropriate strategy for the given context
• ability to place boundaries in the workplace and consider which linguistic strategies will help you strike a balance between competence and politeness.

Regulations