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ENG-10064 - Module Specification
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Business, Law, Humanities & Social Sciences

For academic year: 2026/27 Last Updated: 16 September 2026

ENG-10064 - Voices and Audiences: Building Your Professional Communication Skills
Coordinator: Becky Yearling Room: CBB2.061 Tel: +44 1782 7 34282
Lecture Time:
Level: Level 4
Credits: 15
Study Hours: 150
School Office:

Programme/Approved Electives for 2026/27

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2026/27

This module introduces you to the many ways that your literary knowledge and communication skills will be useful in future employment. Studying a range of poems and plays, you will learn how to employ effective rhetorical strategies to communicate professionally with different audiences, enabling you to engage in public speaking, design lesson plans or exhibitions, or run social media marketing campaigns.

Aims
This module is designed to develop students' communication abilities, and help them to begin thinking about how the knowledge and skills they are gaining through their literary studies will allow them to engage with audiences in the real world. Part of the module focuses on developing a public voice, through public speaking and the use of social media. The other part of the module involves students being given the chance to explore how their literary skills and knowledge can be applied in workplaces such as theatres, heritage sites, and schools.

Intended Learning Outcomes

display confidence and skill in public speaking.
: 1
identify the goals and needs of specific workplaces (e.g. a theatre, a heritage site, a school) and show how their literary skills could be applied to fulfilling those needs.: 2
demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between communicative acts (e.g. a tweet, a label on a museum exhibit) and the audience that they are aimed at.: 1,2

Study hours

Active Learning 24 hours:
24: Workshops
Independent Study 126 hours:
85: Class preparation and set reading
5: Presentation preparation
36: Final Assignment preparation and writing

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment

1: Presentation weighted 20%
Presentation
Students will recite a poem from a tutor-created anthology that will be made available to them and then explain what interests them about their chosen poem and why they picked it. The total length of the presentation will be 2-3 minutes. Marks will be awarded based on both delivery and content, and students will be provided with task-specific marking criteria in advance (based on the generic Keele presentation criteria), and given class sessions on public speaking technique. The weighting for this assignment has deliberately been set relatively low, to reduce the sense of pressure that students often feel when asked to do oral assessments.

2: Assignment weighted 80%
Written assignment
Students will be given a choice of 3 assignments, all based on real-world scenarios: 1) Plan a virtual exhibition, based on a play they have studied on the module; 2) Create a lesson plan for a secondary-school class, based a play they have studied on the module; 3) Create a mock social media campaign for an imagined production of a play studied on the module. Each assignment will be accompanied by a paragraph (c. 300 words) of reflection on the task and its challenges. The assignment will be 1500 words (+/- 10%) in total. Students will be given specific assessment criteria for each assignment, and also examples of completed assessments so that they can see what to aim for. Class sessions will focus on developing the skills and knowledge needed for each type of assignment.

The University undertakes a continuous review of its teaching and research provision to ensure programmes are of a high quality and changes may be made to modules where it is necessary and reasonable to do so. Please be aware that minor changes to modules, such as a change to an individual assessment, can occur up until enrolment, although we endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes. Details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/legalgovernancecompliance/governance/actcharterstatutesordinancesandregulations/studenttermsconditions/

Last Updated: 16 September 2026