ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION LU2: DESCRIBING JOB RESPONSIBILITIES Mdm Rosnah Hj Mustafa 1

2

LEARNING OUTCOMES At the end of this unit students should be able to: 1. understand English verbs 2. observe Subject-Verb agreement and parallelism 3. describe job responsibilities 3

INTRODUCTION TO SOME USEFUL TERMS  Job specifications or Job Specs  Job description  Skills  Qualities 4

JOB SPECIFICATION = YOU Focuses on you and what you have in view of the position applied MUST be related to the job Consists of: Qualifications- the type of education, training or certification required for the post Knowledge- specific types of knowledge required for the job Experience- Number of years working in a specific field Abilities and Skills- Vocational or job related skills which are instrumental to the job 5

JOB SPECIFICATIONS EXAMPLES 1.Qualifications BSc(Computer Engineering) = System Developer B.Eng (Civil) = JKR Engineer BSc Bio Medicine = Q41 Research Officer B. Econs = Banker B.A. (Fine Art) = DA 41 Art Tutor B.A (English) = Corporate Communication Junior Executive 6

JOB SPECIFICATIONS EXAMPLES 2.Knowledge Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Information Systems =System Developer Neurology, anatomy, linguistics and Phonetics = Speech and Language Therapist Marine Biology, Physics, Zoology, Oceanography, Chemistry = Marine Biologist Science, Computer Science Technology, Engineering, Statistics = Computer Network Operation Specialist Fine Art, Visual Arts, Art & Design (Undergraduate) Social Work or Psychology or Education (Postgraduate)= Art Therapist- 7

JOB SPECIFICATIONS EXAMPLES 3.Experience 3-month internship at Silicon Valley 6-month industrial training at UKM Research Centre 1-year internship at Khazanah Nasional 18-month graduate Training Programme under SHELL 4. Abilities and skills Setting up IT labs, Managing Group Tasks, Updating Computer Programmes, Designing Interactive Applications 8

JOB DESCRIPTION= EMPLOYER  A description of the nature of the job  It provides the tasks and responsibilities of a particular post-what you need to do to fulfill the post  For example: 9

10 _ZEM%252C_&usg=__HpAfdsmcbyBoDyzrpgD8qACdAj8%3D&ved=0 ahUKEwiNurXazN_KAhUCTI4KHaUqD_AQyjcIQg&ei=8gu0Vo35H4 KYuQSl1byADw#imgrc=IWf5qrECeaoRZM%3A&usg=__HpAfdsmcby BoDyzrpgD8qACdAj8%3D

/jobs/subject-coordinator ?sortBy=dp&careers=1%2C37&size=20&page=0 11

SKILLS Refers to your abilities or expertise Includes managerial (leadership & organisational), transferable (general), communication (interpersonal & interactional) and vocational (job related e.g. lab handling, Autocad, SPSS) skills Communication, problem-solving, computer skills are examples of skills that are very often sought by employers 12 What are the skills you have or wish to have? List them down.

QUALITIES 13 What are the qualities that you think are important to highlight about yourself? List them down.  Related to character and attitude such as confidence, honesty, self- motivated resourcefulness  When you write these into your CV they become ‘confident, honest, self-motivated and resourceful’. Why is that so?

LANGUAGE FOCUS: VERBS 14

 Collate items for agenda of monthly meetings of the management committee  Distribute agenda to committee members  Attend management committee meetings and take minutes  Circulate minutes of management committee meetings  Support the work the Secretary taken from 15

 Execute full lifecycle software development  Write well designed, testable, efficient code  Produce specifications and determine operational feasibility  Integrate software components into a fully functional software system  Develop software verification plans and quality assurance procedures  Document and maintain software functionality  Tailor and deploy software tools, processes and metrics  Serve as a subject matter expert  Comply with project plans and industry standards taken from 16

LANGUAGE FOCUS: VERBS CONT.  Turn to page 6 of your textbook for a list of vivid verbs  You may add your own verbs to the list 17

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT I, we, they, my colleaguesHe, She, it Conduct? Play? Assist? Put? Run? Manage? Coordinate? Source? Scan? Plan? 18

Example 1Example 2 Draws blood sampleEditing university papers Carries out testingOrganised seminars Writes reportsAssists in layout and design 19 PARALLEL STRUCTURE OF VERBS (P. 7) Which is parallel?

USING PARALLEL STRUCTURE  What is a Parallel Structure? Simply put, it is ‘consistency’ in the tense you are using.  draws-carries-writes are parallel because they are all in the present tense  Editing- Organised and Assists  How should these be re-worded? 20

LET’S DO SOME EXERCISES 1. WORK IN PAIRS 2. Turn to page 3-5 (Job descriptions 1, 2 and 3) 3. Discuss your answers with your lecturer 21

EXERCISE 2  WORK IN GROUPS  List down the possible responsibilities, skills and qualities of either a (1) web page designer or (2) a flight attendant  You may also choose a post/occupation suitable to your degree 22

 Turn to page 11  You may focus on ONE job advertisement only  Discuss with your lecturer the following week  Keep all these homework in your Portfolio. These will assist you in the assessments. 23

LET’S RECAP! 1. What is a Verb? What are vivid verbs? 2. What is Subject-Verb Agreement? 3. What is a parallel structure? 24