Using extracts from student essays

as teaching materials.

Chris NelsonINTO Newcastle University

Graduate Diploma programme.

2 semesters of 12 weeks each.

Mainly East Asian graduates, aiming to go on to a Master’s programme.

The great majority at Newcastle University Business School (NUBS).

Academic skills: •Understanding a structure

•Understanding an argument

•Recognising depth •Recognising strengths and weaknesses in texts •Analysis

•Evaluation  •Synthesis

EAP sources & content (1):

Prescribed authentic journal articles.

• General corporate issues, eg the use of SNSs in HR recruitment.

• Social / educational issues such as international students’ culture shock.

EAP sources & content (2):

Extracts from students’ extended essays which have been assessed as excellent.

• Typically, business topics such as corporate strategies and their effect on performance.

• Economic and social policies.

Learnt / taught content:

1 The students’ knowledge gleaned from their previous undergraduate courses and, in a few cases, from work experience.

2 Input from INTO academic courses: 

• International Business Management

• Study & Research Skills

• Financial Data Analysis or International Relations • Economics or Social & Cultural Studies

The Study & Research Skills extended essay:

• 5,000 words

• Fully researched & referenced

• From week 3 of semester 1 to week 9 of semester 2 (submission)

• Not assessed for language, but must show clear evidence of criticality.

Title Digitalis-ation and record labels’ bus. models 

China: the media and the govern-ment 

Supply Chain Manage-ment and humanit-arian aid 

Internal conflict in multi-national enterprises 

Layout strategies in shops 

Main features

Analysis & evaluation

cautious language; citations

Analysis & evaluation;citations 

Analysis & evaluation;citations & synthesis; cautious language.

Evaluation of research limitations

Mark awarded

75 73 70 63 73

e-commerce strategies: Burberry in China

The full title of this essay is “Re-evaluating the Success of Luxury Fashion Brands’ E-commerce Strategies: Applying the Revised 8C Framework to the Case Study of Burberry in China.”

This is a framework which the student adapted from Yang et al. (2008: 7) and Bjorn-Andersen and Hansen (2011).

One of the 8 Cs, Connection, involves the use of Social Network Sites:

Extract 3

Firstly, by utilizing these SNSs to share specific forms of brand information …and respond to customers’ reactions immediately, Burberry’s communication channels have been expanded, as characteristics emphasized by the Community, the Communication and the Connection elements. It can now make its advertisements, campaigns for newly designed clothes, and corporate announcements more easily and quickly accessed to a much larger quantity of audiences—the current and potential customers. Thus customers’ awareness about brand related events is hugely strengthened (Tynan et al., 2010: 1160). •Highlight the vocabulary which refers to growth and change.

•Can you identify cause and effect in this extract?

•What is it about this extract that makes the writer sound confident?

Extract 4

However, Burberry has cancelled its 24/7 real-time chat and Call Me Back services in China sub-sites. This may not only negatively affect the Customization element as customers now find it difficult to obtain personalized suggestions, but also may reduce the interactional points with the brand. Thus the value co-creating process might be shrunk without these direct communication channels (Tynan et al., 2010: 1160).

•Some of the verbs have been highlighted in red – which ones?

•In terms of language, how does this extract differ from the previous one?

•Why might this be?

Most recent essay topics:

Marketing: An analysis of the implications of brand communication through social media on brand equity.

Psychology: Female performance in maths and the stereotype threat.

Industrial relations: To what extent is anti-sweatshop movement in China successful?

In conclusion, these extended essay extracts are intended to exemplify skills, content and language which:

• are authentic (not written for ELT purposes);

• are relevant to, and engage, the students’ interests; and

• model the students’ target product.