1. Identify and select core concepts and features in academic and professional communication.

Knowledge
Understanding

2. Communicate effectively in a style appropriate to the audience, showing clear structure, continuous prose and correct grammar.

Communication

3. Apply principles of academic and professional legal writing to scenarios

Application
Problem solving

Learning outcomes 1- 3 will all be examined via a 750 word piece of written coursework in the form of a covering letter for an application for a job role in the justice sector. The task will require students to deploy effectively the core features of formal written English, including correct grammatical forms, relevant specialist terminology, and conventions in writing.

This module will develop transferable academic skills for a career in the justice sector. This module will help students to develop and sharpen their writing skills, learning how to write for different audiences and purposes. This will lay the foundations for academic study at undergraduate level and beyond. In addition, the students will be given the opportunity to develop valuable employability skills for work within the justice sector, including a closer look at legal and professional English and styles of client communication.

Through this module, students will cover the following areas:
- Foundational language skills for academic and professional writing, including features of formal and informal writing, active and passive voice, verb agreement and tenses, and first and third person writing.
- Introduction to summarising and paraphrasing.
- Academic propriety and discipline-appropriate referencing.
- The development and use of English in the Legal and wider justice Sector.
- Different forms and purposes of communication for a variety of audiences, including essays, memos, telephone calls, letters, emails, solutions to real life and professional communications.

What are the core differences between an essay and other types of academic writing? Why is important to make this distinction? How do I improve my own writing skills? In this module, we will be answering all of these questions and more. Law and its application across the justice sector is intrinsically connected to language. We will be considering how language is adapted to suit a variety of audiences, whether that is writing an academic essay, or writing a formal letter.

We will be examining the core features of legal English and its use across the justice sector, which will form the foundations for your degree and future career.

The learning strategy for this module is based around students committing a total of 200 hours to module based activities. This is divided into 39 contact hours with your tutor, and 161 hours of direct and independent study.

Your learning will be delivered through a mix of large and small group sessions. Through these sessions, students will be encouraged to partake in group tasks and discussion and receive directed feedback from the tutor. Additional resources will also be posted on the VLE for students to engage with.

Large group sessions
In these sessions, students are introduced to the core concepts in academic skills. There will be opportunities for students to ask questions, and to begin to understand their applications in legal writing.

Small group sessions
Smaller group sessions will supplement the larger sessions. In these sessions, students will be given a variety of exercises to reflect, consolidate and apply their knowledge through reflective employability-focused tasks, quizzes, MCTs and writing. There will be opportunity to work both independently and participate in group work activities.

Students will be expected to prepare for the workshops through directed reading and their own independent research. Students will be given the opportunity to participate in a formative assessment, which the tutor will provide feedback and opportunities to further develop their work.

This module will incorporate employability-focused workshops on the following topics:
Who am I and how do I want to present myself?
Effective and professional communication in the workplace
Self-advocacy

Haigh, R., Legal English. (4th edn, Routledge 2018)
Finch, E and Fafinski, S, Legal Skills (9th edn, OUP 2023 – this text is available via Law Trove and will not incur any additional costs (this text is recommended for LLB students only)
Cottrell, S, The Study Skills Handbook. (6th edn, Macmillan Study Skills 2024)

Students will have access to a range of library resources, including Law Trove.
Resources will also be posted on the VLE