Techniques of Communication and Expression II
Cod: 51069
Department: DH
ECTS: 6
Scientific area: Communication Sciences
Total working hours: 156
Total contact time: 24

This curricular unit displays a set of proposals and discursive practices on written communication in academic contexts. Its main goal is to improve students’ written expression skills by reflecting on critical contents and by practicing textual production.
In recent years, there has been a growing need to promote academic literacy among students, as they often show difficulties in several aspects of written expression (such as syntax, lexical selection, use of connectors, punctuation, length of the sentences, segmentation in paragraphs, structuring contents and an adequate adopted style). Therefore, attention is focused on the main properties of written genres that university students are asked to produce.
The curricular unit is mainly a theoretical-practical one. As a result, after presenting and discussing contents, students are required to produce different texts in which those contents shall be applied. This methodology includes analysing and commenting on those texts that are shared in the forums made available in each theme.

Academic literacy
Academic genres
Written expression
Stylistic and phraseological devices

This curricular unit is intended to develop the students’ ability:
• to recognize the central importance of their written expression’s quality in the evaluation process in university;
• to identify distinctive properties of texts produced in academic contexts;
• to write correctly texts that are suitable to academic contexts;
• to produce texts whose contents are properly selected, ordered and connected;
• to write texts of different academic genres, adopting a style which is appropriate to the university requirements.

• Academic literacy and genres of academic discourse;
• Grammatical and stylistic aspects of written expression (syntax, lexical selection, punctuation, sentence length, paragraphs);
• Structural aspects of the texts that students are asked to write (ordering and properly connecting contents).

Silva, P. N. (2020). Manual de Técnicas de Expressão e Comunicação. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34627/279s-0397
Coffin, C. J., Curry, M. J., Goodman, S., e Hewings, A. (2003). Teaching academic writing. A toolkit for higher education. London/New York: Routledge.
González, I. A. (2005). Instruções de escrita. Lisboa: Direcção-Geral de Inovação e Desenvolvimento Curricular.
Nascimento, Z., e Pinto, J. M. C. (2006). A dinâmica da escrita, 5.ª ed. Lisboa: Plátano Editora.
Oliveira, L. A. (2018). Escrita científica. Da folha em branco ao texto final. Lisboa: Lidel.

E-learning

Continuous assessment is privileged: 2 digital written documents (e-folios) during the semester (40%) and a final digital test, Global e-folio (e-folio G) at the end of the semester (60%). In due time, students can alternatively choose to perform one final exam (100%).