Preparation for the Expression of Modality in Business Case Study Reports

In Module Three of the 20-week pre-sessional programme, writing business case study reports is noted as a key skill requirement in the module learning outcomes (see C7 and D8 in Appendix A) and is the focus of a timed (unseen) extended writing assessment (see module assessment portfolio details in Table 3.3). As noted in Nathan (2013), this approach to assessing business case study reports is unusual. The preference in Business Schools is either to assign the case as an out-of-class task with several weeks given to complete them, or as timed and seen written assessments where the case materials are made available a considerable time in advance of the assessment.

Despite the change of focus from discursive essay writing to business case study reports, the writing skills development sessions continue to be focused on essay writing using EASS Writing. In order to provide some focused input on business case study reports, an additional (two-hour) writing development workshop is provided. The additional input session is comprehensive and gives a useful introduction to the design and layout of business case study reports; however, it provides no explicit guidance on modality, language choice or otherwise, which is relevant to the genre being assessed. Instances of modality exist in the

example text that the amateur writers are provided with, but they lack variation, and suggest that texts of this type predominantly express meanings of modulation with the modal verb should and the lexical verb need. Previous experience with the other materials has also encouraged high value modality. For example, in LLA, Unit Three, the Scenario Lesson asks the learners to make ‘strong recommendations’; in LLA Unit Seven, the Scenario Lesson encourages the learners to use need when prioritising, but only lower value modality when attempting to save face (‘delaying actions’ and ‘making alternative suggestions’). The teaching materials are actively ignoring intersubjectivity when instructing the learners to assert a point of view. It is to be expected then that this preference would be carried across to the amateur writer case studies, and it does: almost 60% of instances of modality involved meanings of obligation (necessity and recommendation). Both amateur writers and expert writers chose to use modulated language more frequently than they did in discursive essays; however, even with this increase, the expert writers were more evenly balanced between expressing meanings of modalization and expressing meanings of modulation; the amateur writers, on the other hand, expressed meanings of modulation in 73% of the recorded instances of modality.

An important part of understanding how to write business case study reports is the negotiation between ‘practitioner self’ and ‘student self’ (Nesi & Gardner, 2012). For the uninitiated, this process is fraught with difficulty. The learner is required to adopt a business consultancy role (with all associated features that might entail including: appropriate business lexis and understanding of business theory and practice (Nathan, 2013)), whilst simultaneously demonstrating sufficient academic competence to be successfully assessed as such. A key difference between the expert and amateur writers in their business case study reports was the preference in the expert texts to express what it is circumstantially possible for companies to do (using can and could) rather than making recommendations (what they should do). There is a subtle difference, and one that requires recognition of distance and the possibility of alternative courses of action. This is not a feature of any input on case studies that is received prior to their assessment, and neither is it a focus of input after their assessment.

The teaching input on business case study reports (post-assessment) occurs in EBS in Units Six, Ten and Twelve. All are introductory lessons which focus on different structural moves within case study reports and all are taught in Module Four. None of the three lessons give recognition to prior instruction or assessment in this genre, nor do they recognise the effort that the students have put in to learning to write in this genre. Instead, the lessons are complemented by the use of case discussions on major companies that operate in the UK (Kellogg’s (Week 14), Warburton’s Operations (Week 15), Corus (Week 16) and Cima (Week 17). The materials used to teach these sessions are taken from www.thetimes100.co.uk (now rebranded as www.businesscasestudies.co.uk), a business studies teaching and learning website. The case studies are meant as reading and speaking tasks and involve no writing up

of case studies or responses to them. This is the last opportunity that the amateur writers get to learn about writing business case study reports before completing the course. The focus from this point onwards is on the writing of research reports. This is insufficient as a means of instruction for the teaching of modality within business case study reports. Modality appears to be marginalised in the language instruction due to preference being given to the teaching of the rhetorical structures within this genre type. Given the latest developments in EAP materials design and its alignment with the latest findings in research on genre analysis, the programme designers are not wilfully excluding modality. Rather, they appear to trust that the materials are sufficient for their needs. Since the materials appear to marginalise modality, then the assumption seems to be that the students’ prior knowledge of this language area, as well as the input received in Modules One and Two, are sufficient. The amateur writers only need to know that the language function of case studies is to make recommendations, and that this is achieved through the use of a limited range of modal and semi modal verbs expressing median to high value modulation. The findings from section 4.3 show that appropriate expression of modality in this genre is much more complicated, with successful writers employing an intricate balance of both modalization and modulation, together with low and median values and a varied repertoire of lexicogrammatical features.