Introduction

Basic Communication Skills (CS 101) is a core module that is offered to all Level 1 Semester 1
(1.1) students from all Faculties at Midlands State University. Firstly, this module imparts, writing,
reading, speaking, and listening skills that make students learning more effective and enjoyable.
Through this experience, students will prepare themselves for the increasingly challenging
university workload as it promotes skills that are fundamental to their academic success. Secondly,
it teaches students communication skills that can be used even beyond the academic context; report
writing, curriculum vitae writing (CV) and use of visual aids in research report writing. Hence, the
module equips students with the necessary communication skills essential for their degree studies
as well as post university experience. In this module students are taught and encouraged to
incorporate source materials (academic referencing) into their writing, according to the standard
academic conventions recommended in their departments. Thus, the skills imparted in the CS 101
module are not only for academic purposes although that is the primary focus but for life after
University as well. In addition, the module enables students to argue and clearly express written
and oral assignments, to carry out appropriate research and to be able to interpret research
information. The module is divided into five units comprising of:

Academic Essay Writing ………………………………………. Page 1

Report Writing…………………………………………………. .Page 8
Academic Referencing…………………………………………. Page10
Oral Communication …………………………………….…….. Page 20
Curriculum Vitae and Resume Writing……………………….……. …Page 24
UNIT 1: ACADEMIC ESSAY WRITING

1.1 Overview

This section introduces you to the process of academic essay writing which is the most common
form of assessment at university. Though there are several types of written work at university such
as essays, reports, projects, assignments and dissertations, much of your work will be assessed by
essay; whether that’s an essay prepared in your spare time, over a period of days or weeks, or one
concocted in an examination hall in the space of an hour. McNamara et al. (2010:58) point out that
“writing well is a significant challenge for students and of critical importance for success in a wide
variety of situations and professions.” Therefore, this section is meant to assist you learn how to
prepare, organise and present essays, in order to do well.

Wingersky et al. (2009) say writing is a way to gain control over one’s ideas and get them down
on paper. They go on to say it is a process through which one discovers, organises and
communicates one’s thoughts to his/her reader.

1.2 Definition: Essay

 Sinfield and Burns (2004) say the term ‘essay’ was derived from the Latin word
‘exagium’ which means ‘a presentation of a case’.
 Following the definition by Sinfield and Burns (2004) a student is expected to present
a case/presenting an argument rather than making an assertion or assumption when
writing an essay.
 Payne and Whittaker (2006) define an essay as an argument /thesis for which students
adopt a particular stance and in support of which they present evidence. The following
is observed by Payne and Whittaker (2006:317)
…the objective when writing an essay is to convince
your reader that your particular standpoint is valid by
presenting researched argument based on evidence from
authoritative sources.
 Presenting a case therefore requires academic evidence which the student gets from
various academic sources (and demonstrates through in-text referencing).
 When called to write an essay one selects what is permissible based on the demands of the
topic.
 Sinfield and Burns (2004:141) conclude by saying that ‘essay writing is designed to be
heuristic – you are supposed to learn through all the processes involved in the generation
of a written assignment”.

1.3 Why write an essay

The essays might ask you to; evaluate a quotation in light of what you have studied, analyse and
asses the significance of a particular policy or event, choose between two conflicting assessments
of an event or theory and to write about a particular theme on aspects covered in a module.

1.4 Characteristics of an essay

Essays are:

 Made up of a group of paragraphs discussing a single idea

 Academic paragraphs have a -topic sentence, supporting/ developing sentences and a
concluding sentence rounding off the paragraph or connecting with the upcoming
paragraph
 Have a definite beginning, middle and end

1.5 The Essay Writing Process/Steps in Essay Writing

Although there are some basic steps to writing an assignment, essay writing is not a linear process.
It is recursive (Warne 2008). You might work through the different stages a number of times in
the course of writing an essay. For example, you may go back to the reading and note taking stage
if you find another useful text, or perhaps to reread to locate specific information. In simple terms
we can say during the writing process the writer goes back in order to go forward.

The steps to be followed are not cast in stone, they depend on the scholar one got interested in and
appreciated but for this module we will focus on the following steps:

i) Pre-writing

Topic analysis
 Identifying key words and finding their contextual meanings as context
influences how we define a situation. Also find the meanings of instructional
words in a question, e.g. Analyse, discuss, criticize, evaluate etc. in order to
understand the demands or requirements of the topic
 The following activities also fall under prewriting.
  Brainstorming
 Researching

Task

What does brainstorming entail?

With a friend, brainstorm on any assignment topic from your department.
How helpful was that exercise?
Research on the importance of the researching stage explaining how the SQ3R reading method
can be useful at this stage

Write your own notes on the following steps in essay writing

2. Organising ideas
3. Drafting
4. Editing and proof reading
5. Submission
6. Essay Structure
7. Essay topic

According to Dvorack (2007) the Topic is the initial TEXT that establishes or seeks to establish
semantic boundaries of disciplinary content signaled by context. Thus for one to be able to write
a research paper or essay, one needs to have a topic to work on (working topic) first.
 It is a key to what one chooses/ selects from the researched ideas, facts etc, that
is, it gives one guidance on what sort of information can fully discuss the topic at
hand.
 The topic allows the writer to gather ideas, i.e evidence from various sources.

ii) The Introduction

 First paragraph of an essay telling the professional reader how the writer is going to tackle
the topic and how the essay is structured.
 The introduction tells the reader communicatively whether or not the subsequent essay will
answer the topic at hand.
 Short and precise summarizing what is to come in the body
 The last sentence of this paragraph should contain a transitional hook to link with the first
paragraph of the main body.
NB: Examiners will be looking for a clear, coherent and consistent analysis, supported by evidence
(Cuba, 1998).

iii)The body

The Body is the longest part of the essay it has arguments and counter arguments presented in
paragraphs with supporting sources. Each idea should be discussed in one separate paragraph. The
paragraph is made of a topic sentence, supporting sentences and a concluding sentence.
Task:
Look at the following paragraph carefully and rewrite it correctly following academic writing
conventions discussed in this unit.

while organisation maybe key to success at university, it is not the only factor that affects that
success. numerous other things in life can contribute. all students, regardless of their differences
will experience a transition when first starting university. the university of queensland student
services in 2010 on page 15 stated that, successful students are those that can recognize, accept
and adapt to the transition. however, this adaptability is not the only additional attribute of a
successful student. In a study comprising of 264 students academics from varied degrees and
departments conducted by ditcher and tetely in 1999, three key factors were found that attributed
to students’ academic success: self-motivation, fair and appropriate assessment and well-
structured presentations by lecturers.

TASK
*What is the body of an essay? Clearly explain the characteristics of a good essay
*List and explain the characteristics of the body of an essay which you can identify from the above
paragraph.
*From the last sentence of the above paragraph there are three factors to academic success. *Pick
one factor and write a paragraph following the academic writing convention.
*NB. Make sure your paragraph has a topic sentence, developers or supporting ideas and a
concluding sentence or clincher.

iii) The Conclusion

 Paragraph rounding off the essay.

  Summarises the thesis developed in the introduction and body of the essay in which the
writer reiterates main arguments and restates main points raised and discussed in the
body.

Task

Write a short conclusion to the following essay question: Discuss any five barriers to oral
communication. Make sure your conclusion satisfies all the requirements of a good
conclusion.

iv) Referencing

Compilation of a list of sources that were referred to in-text on a fresh separate page following
rules and conventions for end-text referencing of the referencing system used in-text.