Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Communication: Drafting and Writing
Teaching staff
Dra. Carla Gracia: cgracia@uic.es
Dr. Santiago Justel: sjustel@uic.es
Introduction
Knowing how to express oneself with clarity, criteria, and precision is fundamental for any future professional of communication. Through continued practice, Communication and Written Information offers the essential tools for the student to develop their creativity and grasp the narrative techniques of the written text.
Pre-course requirements
No prerequisites are necessary.
Objectives
- Encourage reading and writing to improve oral and written expression
- Learning to generate content, to relate it to other knowledge and to structure ideas appropriately within a text
- Offer a theoretical base on the narrative tools that allow the student to make the most of the language for effective communication according to the objective established in each case
- Experiment with different narrative genres and communicative registers and understand the particularity and potential of each one
- Write with correctness and precision
- Improve the style of writing itself and understand the effect of certain stylistic and narrative decisions.
- Know how to analyze texts in a well-argued way
- Incorporate self-correction as part of the process of writing the written text.
- Encourage the critical attitude and reflective capacity of the student as a consumer and creator of texts.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- 03 - The ability to plan personal resources (personnel, materials, seasonal...)
- 05 - The ability to learn autonomously
- 06 - The ability to act autonomously and responsibly
- 09 - Lingustic ability in Catalan, Spanish and English
- 10 - The ability to develop an ethical attitude
- 11 - The ability to make judgments and well-argued critical assessments
- 12 - The ability to produce spoken and written texts
- 13 - Reading skills
- 14 - Ability to analyse
- 15 - The ability to synthesise
- 16 - The ability to detect newsworthy events
- 17 - The ability to confront difficulties and resolve problems
- 18 - The ability to work under pressure
- 20 - The ability of concretion
- 21 - The ability of abstraction
- 22 - The ability to generate debate and reflection
- 48 - The ability to understand and apply the expressive possibilities of new technologies
- 50 - The ability to understand and apply the different narrative elements of a project
- 52 - The ability to design and critique an audiovisual script
- 55 - The ability to design and critique an informative discourse
- 60 - Knowledge and mastery of the techniques of continuous narrative transmission
- 64 - Knowledge and mastery of bibliographic repertories
- 67 - Knowledge and mastery of the digital culture
- 68 - Knowledge and mastery of the distinction between opinion and information / colloquial and cultured register
- 69 - Knowledge and mastery of the different techniques used to contrast information
- 72 - Knowledge and mastery of the principle techniques for scientific and journalistic investigation
- 73 - Knowledge and mastery of techniques to analyze sources of information.
- 74 - Knowledge and mastery of multimedia messages
- 75 - Knowledge and mastery of language use
- 83 - The ability and capacity to give form to a creative message
- 87 - The ability and capacity to use technology and communicative techniques
- 90 - The ability of insight, ingenuity and creativity
- 92 - The ability for analysis, synthesis and critical judgment
- 93 - To know how to manage time
- 96 - The ability to objectively analysis reality and the extraction of valid considerations
Learning outcomes of the subject
Students:
- They will write correctly and fluently
- They will learn techniques of synthesis and concretion and organization of ideas
- They will have a higher command of the language and a greater creative capacity that they will be able to apply effectively according to the communication objectives
- They will be able to analyze texts of different communicative natures
- They will put creativity into practice
Syllabus
The course addresses the following topics:
- Communication: foundations, factors and objectives
- Reading comprehension strategies
- The process of writing
- The composition process. Generate, choose and order content, write, edit
- Good writing: paragraphs, sentences, style, grammar, vocabulary, cohesion, punctuation, rhythm
- Explore the rhetorical source. Theme and idea
- The narrator and the narrative voice
- Writing styles: literary, academic, journalistic, advertising.
- Narrative structures
- Backgrounds and form: figurative language. Say and show.
- Editing a text and rewriting
- Rhetoric and orality
- The technological environment and written communication
Teaching and learning activities
In person
| Lectures. In lectures, lecturers/professors not only transmit content or knowledge, but also, and above all else, attitudes, motivation, skills and values, etc. They also ensure that participants can express their opinions and arguments to the other students. | 1.5 |
| Coaching. Monitoring how students learn the content of the subject, either individually or in groups. In the coaching sessions, mistakes will be corrected, queries answered, and exercises and activities to achieve the established objectives will be suggested. | 1 |
| Seminar. This activity will consist of taking an in-depth look at specific up-to-date topics in a monographic manner-in some cases these topics will have been debated socially-, via active work in small groups. | 1 |
| Focused Praxis. Handing in occasional exercises to learn theory through practice. | 2.5 |
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
Evaluation criteria
Following the rules of the Faculty, the spelling mistakes will deduct a point in the works and half a point in the exams. Thus, the regulations of the faculty will be strictly observed in relation to spelling mistakes and, of course, plagiarism. In this sense, plagiarism will be grounds for suspension of the entire subject and may be a minor fault established by the university's governing board.
Evaluation system:
The evaluation is divided into three parts:
-A final exam: 50%
-Portfolio: 25%
-Midterm: 25%
Other calls:
Second call: If the student fails the first call, they must take the second call exam.
Third call: If the student fails the second call, he or she must register again for the entire subject and take it. The student will have to attend the classes, present the practices and pass the exam.
Fourth call: If the student fails the third call, he or she must take the fourth call exam.
Fifth call: If the student suspends the fourth call, he will have to accept the conditions established by the extraordinary calls.
Bibliography and resources
Aleza, M. et al. (2006) Lengua española para los medios de comunicación: usos y normas actuales. Barcelona: Tirant lo Blanch.
Camps, O. (2013) Edited by Amadeo, I. Llibre d’estil de la corporació catalana de mitjans audiovisuals. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya.
Cassany, D. (2006) La cocina de la escritura. Barcelona: Anagrama.
Cassany, D. (1989) Describir el escribir. Barcelona: Austral.
Eco, U. (1996) Seis paseos por los bosques narrativos. Barcelona: Lumen.
Fuentes, C. (2011) Guia práctica de escritura y redacción. Barcelona: Espasa Libros.
García Márquez, G. (1995) Cómo se cuenta un cuento. Madrid: Ollero y Ramos.
Goldberg, N. (2004) El gozo de escribir. Madrid: La liebre de marzo.
Goldberg, N. (2003) El rayo y el trueno. Barcelona: La liebre de marzo.
King, S. (2012) Mientras escribo. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés.
Lázaro, F. (2015) El dardo en la palabra. Barcelona: Debolsillo.
Martínez Sousa, J. (2001) Manual de estilo de la lengua española. Gijón: Ediciones Trea
Páez, E. (2006) Manual de técnicas narrativas. Editorial SM. Madrid:
Queneau, R. (1989) Ejercicios de estilo. Madrid: Cátedra.
Rodari, G. (2002) Gramática de la fantasía: introducción al arte de contar historias. Madrid: Editorial del Bronce.
Spang, K. (2005) Persuasión. Fundamentos de retórica. Barcelona: Eunsa.