Academic and business literacies, Creativity and Employability

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Academic and business literacies, Creativity and
Employability

• Mike Morgan

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Communications technologies
Global competition
Outsourcing
Recommoditisation of services
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(No Transcript)
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• Creating unique and memorable experiences
• that engage the individual in a personal way
• and offer the chance of transformation
• Pine and Gilmour (1999) The Experience Economy

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The most precious resources are stories that
spark the imagination that reflect how we see
ourselves and how we want others to see
ourselves Jensen The Dream Society
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The need for creative writing

• A brand is made up of any number of different
  experiences, most of which involve the exchange
  of words
• yet time and time again we see them defined -
  through umpteen varieties of models - with the
  same tired old words
• Business writing needs to go beyond clarity. You
  cant be clear if you are not read.
• John Simmons 2004 Dark Angels

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Does Academic literacy inhibit creativity?

• Objective, abstract, theoretical
• but no experience of making a persuasive case
• Students have to adapt to conventions, norms and
  cultural assumptions
• difficult for those from other cultures
• learn to hide what they think and play the game
  the tutors want
• encourages adaptive rather than transformative
  mind sets

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The Research question

• Does the process of adapting to the academic
  style and its cultural assumptions
• enhance the graduates capabilities and
  employability?
• encourage or inhibit the development of
  creativity?
• Explored through interviews with final year
  students and recent graduates

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A level
GNVQ
Mature
BA Leisure Marketing Years 1 2
40 week placement
Final year dissertation
First career posts
KTP
Own business
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Perceived differences

• Business writing
• Very similar
• Even more important -shows professionalism
• Persuasive
• Top-line only - evidence implicit
• Varies with audience
• Personality and mood to communicate image
• Outcome orientated

• Academic writing
• Concise and clear
• Correct grammar and spelling
• Analytical discussion
• Explicit evidence and references
• Formal, third person
• Objective, impersonal
• Process orientated

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How do they learn the style?

• Trial and error
• Feedback from tutors/managers
• Talking to peers/colleagues
• Looking at examples
• Less likely to use
• guides, webpages, books on how to write
• formal training except for IT techniques

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The Learning Experience

• Scared and confused at first
• Gradually developing understanding and confidence
• Sense of being stretched and challenged
• Pride in looking back to see how much theyve
  improved

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But....

• A game of ticking the right boxes
• using standardised formats and templates
• frustrated at not being able express their own
  views
• stifled by the weight of evidence

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Valuable because

• It forces you to do the reading (despite peer
  pressure)
• it teaches you to write clearly and analyse
• an underpinning for the way you write at work
• It teaches you to use a particular style
• to adapt to what people expect
• an important learning curve, recognising that
  each organisation has its own style

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What does creativity mean?

• Standing out from the crowd
• Communicating in an original way
• Using different approaches
• Finding novel, innovative solutions
• Making a personal contribution

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Barriers to creativity

• Too risky
• Not enough time
• too much already to get my head around
• so just do the job and tick the box
• Conformist Cultures ?
• Reward - where is creativity in the generic
  assessment criteria?

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• I think your grasp of the formal writing style
  improves as you become more mature and you can
  use it in a more creative way
• You have to have the grounding, and prove youve
  got it first, but maybe towards the end of the
  course you should be able to show youve got
  creativity and not just regurgitate the models

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• Everybodys got it in them to some extent. I
  dont think you can teach it
• My degree encouraged me to be creative because
  its given me a thirst for knowledge