The Business School
This page contains timetable information on Subject Specific Academic English support classes for students in the University of Exeter Business School (UEBS). These workshops are open to students at all levels of study, but we also offer sessions specific to doctoral students at the business school, and you can find information about these under the Academic Reading and Writing menu.
Our aim is to help you build confidence in using English to participate fully in your programmes. We have divided to workshops into those that focus on assignment writing and those that focus on oral fluency for seminars and presentations.
Enrol quickly and easily:
- Click on the drop down menus for Academic Reading and Writing and Oral Communication for Business Students
- Select the best time for you.
- Click on the link to enrol.
Enrolling in one session will automatically enrol you in all subsequent sessions at this time, but if your timetable changes it is easy to cancel your enrolment via the system or by emailing insessional@exeter.ac.uk .
To make the most of all our English Language Skills Development resources, join our bespoke MS Team: Academic English for Business where you will find materials, tips, strategies for effective use of academic English.
And you should explore our independent learning resources here: Guided Independent Learning site.
Workshops
Our term 3 workshops aim to help you to continue developing your reading and writing skills as you progress through your programme. An emphasis is placed on writing longer assignments, including dissertations, research reports and business plans
Sign up by clicking on the links in the table below. You can read the descriptors below the table. Remember that each workshop is standalone, so you must sign up to each workshop you want to attend.
Reading for assignment writing: You are expected to read when preparing and writing all your assignments including dissertations and research projects. This can be a cause of stress for students if they don’t have effective strategies for approaching texts and managing the information they gather from their reading. This workshop offers practical tips to make your reading a pleasure not a pain!
Critical and analytical writing: This session revisits what it really means to be critical and practical ways in which we can show critical engagement through our writing in order to develop and communicate our argument. A complex topic delivered in a practical way for practical purposes – a must for postgraduate students at the business school.
Ace Introductions: Every piece of writing starts with some kind of introduction and that introduction is fundamental to making it an effective piece of writing. This workshop reviews the key moves using authentic examples from student writing, so that you can make sure your introduction properly establishes the purpose of your assignment and prepares the reader for what is to come.
Lovely Literature reviews: This session aims to increase your understanding of the purpose of the literature review and how it is organised. Examples from different discipline across business are used to help participants build useful language strategies for better writing.
Super Synthesis: Synthesis is a key skill that is needed for many types of academic writing including literature reviews. Your synthesis is your unique understanding of what your reading has told you about a topic. This session provides practical strategies for writing opportunities to build useful language for showing the relationship between your sources.
Marvellous Methodologies: This workshop focuses on language skills that are useful for writing methodology sections of dissertations. We will make use of exemplars to illustrate and build useful language. This session, which will also review tenses and the language of cause and effect, is useful for anyone writing an assignment that requires them to explain and justify something they did or decisions they made.
Reporting and analysing data in your writing: It might be straightforward to analyse your data or the results of your research, but it can be hard to demonstrate that analysis in your writing. This session will cover the language skills needed to present, explain, and interpret results from research or analysis. Language focus will be on reporting verbs, hedging and evaluative language. Examples from a range of assessments will be used.
Pulling in all together – Discussing and concluding: This is an excellent session to help with writing the discussion and conclusion of a dissertation. It will answer the questions - How can I link my results to research questions and the literature? How do I write about limitations? How should I frame my recommendations?
Language for the Analysts report 1: This workshop uses student examples from BEAM007 to illustrate typical moves and useful language for the sector review and company assessment sections. The session will offer the opportunity to review effective paragraph organisation and the use of boosters and hedging language. It will also be useful for anyone whose assignment focuses on a specific company in a specific sector.
Language for the Analysts report 2: This workshop looks at typical moves and useful language for the financial analysis, valuation, and recommendations section. You will have the opportunity to develop skills for writing data commentary, including effective use of reporting verbs and using evaluative language. This session will be useful for anyone doing BEAM007 or a quantitative dissertation.
If you have any questions about this provision, please email insessional@exeter.ac.uk
Talking about Business and the Workplace
In term 3 re are reprising our talking about business sessions so you can keep boosting your fluency and confidence in using English for the academic study of business and for future employment. There will be four 90-minute sessions in June.
The topic will be announced in advance each week.
- Talking about Business and the Workplace
1:00pm - 2:30pm, Mon Jun 16th 2025 - Talking about Business and the Workplace
1:00pm - 2:30pm, Mon Jun 23rd 2025 - Talking about Business and the Workplace
1:00pm - 2:30pm, Mon Jun 30th 2025 - Talking about Business and the Workplace
1:00pm - 2:30pm, Mon Jul 7th 2025
