English with Business Studies BA (Hons) DIntS / DPS

What you'll study

Excited to learn more? For a taster of what you can expect to study on our English with Business Studies BA (Hons) degree, take a sneak preview of some of the modules you may have the opportunity to study below. You will need to study 120 credits each year, 60 credits in each semester.

The information below reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. Updates may be made on an annual basis and revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year. Please see Terms and Conditions of Study for more information.

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Final year

Our combination of compulsory and optional modules will introduce you to all aspects of the course and provide you with the skills you need for the rest of your degree. In English, you will take courses exploring a range of literary genres, language studies, literary theory and criticism.

The texts you will study are from the Renaissance period to the twenty-first century, and you will read many different forms of literature, learn key theoretical approaches to the material, and develop your skills in close reading, oral communication and essay-writing. In Business Studies, you will be introduced to key areas of business, including commercial law, structure and organization, and management of resources.

In the first year, you will choose one optional module.

Semester 1

Introduction to Management Core

Introduction to Management

The aim of this module is to provide students with a understanding of the ways that management occurs in different organisational contexts.

Narrative Forms and Fiction Core

Narrative Forms and Fiction

Narrative forms and fiction allows you to explore the concept of narrative over a range of genres and time periods, including the study of film as well as short stories, memoir and fiction. Find out how narrative works and, if you wish, try your hand at creating your own stories, screenplays and even graphic novels

Organisational Behaviour Core

Organisational Behaviour

This module aims to prepare students with a sound foundation of behavioural and organisational concepts and to develop a sensitive awareness and clear understanding of how people work individually, in groups and within organisations.

Exploring Language and Linguistics: Introduction to Language Optional

Exploring Language and Linguistics: Introduction to Language

The aim of this module is to develop students' interest in the study of language as a behaviour and to introduce them to the basic notions of structure and variation within the English language.

Analysing Poetry, Metre Form and Meaning: Introduction to Poetry Optional

Analysing Poetry, Metre Form and Meaning: Introduction to Poetry

Students will be equipped with the skills of analysis and response necessary to read verse critically and to find it intellectually stimulating.

Semester 2

Literary and Critical Theories Core

Literary and Critical Theories

The module introduces significant classic and contemporary theoretical approaches and key concepts used in the study of literature today, from which you’ll draw throughout your English degree. Explore themes such as Gender and Sexuality, Fantasy and Dreams, and Power and Protest - and apply them to your own interpretations of literary texts.

Management of Human Resources Core

Management of Human Resources

The aims of this module are to examine critically the role of the Human Resource Management (HRM) function within the contemporary organisation and to develop a clear understanding of how the HRM function maintains an equitable relationship between employer and employee.

Principles of Law Core

Principles of Law

This module aims to introduce basic legal concepts relevant to commercial activity and to explain their relevance as a parameter of business decision-making. It also explains how legal principles are created by case law and statute and illustrate their relevance to all aspects of business activity.

Writing in History Core

Writing in History

This module will provide you with an outline of English literary history from the late medieval period to the early 20th century. You will discover how various ‘timeless’ literary texts reflect the historical context which produced them, often in surprising and complex ways, while also gaining an overview of the dominant movements and periods of English literature.

Our modules in English allow you to develop your understanding of the literature of different historical periods and to study a range of well-known and less familiar writings that will extend your knowledge and confidence in the subject. In Business Studies the modules you will study concentrate on finance, marketing, and contemporary commercial environments. In both English and Business studies, you can choose stimulating optional modules that allow you to pursue areas of particular interest.

In the second year, you will take 70 credits of core modules and choose 50 credits of optional modules.

Semester 1

Accounting for Business Core

Accounting for Business

This module aims to introduce the preparation and interpretation of financial reports, to develop students’ analytical and written presentational skills and to show the relationship between business context and financial reporting.

Principles of Marketing Core

Principles of Marketing

This module introduces students to the principles of marketing and the role of marketing management, in and the impact of internet marketing in a variety of organisational settings (Retail, industrial, service and non-profit orientated).

Renaissance Writings (pre-1800) Core

Renaissance Writings (pre-1800)

A fascinating insight into the literary forms and texts of the Renaissance. As well as a range of texts from the Elizabethan period to the Civil War, you’ll look at historical and cultural contexts, in order to understand what these writers are doing in this period of transformation - including the controversy and power of their writing.

Victorian Literature (post-1800) Core

Victorian Literature (post-1800)

On this module you will examine in detail some of the important novels and poems of the Victorian period. We will consider these works in relation to the social and cultural contexts of the nineteenth century, including class, gender, sexuality, religion and science.

Chivalry from Chaucer to Shakespeare Optional

Chivalry from Chaucer to Shakespeare

Discover and explore the codes of chivalry represented in the behaviour of knights in love, justice, and war from the medieval to the early modern period. Authors studied typically include Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Malory, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare.

From Fan Fiction to YouTube: Navigating the Digital Literary Sphere Optional

From Fan Fiction to YouTube: Navigating the Digital Literary Sphere

This module surveys the structures of literary culture and shows how they have been transformed by online media and behaviour. It will enable you to engage in the digital literary sphere through the creation of blogs, vlogs, online book reviews, and fan fiction.

Introduction to Linguistics Optional

Introduction to Linguistics

How can we use language to describe and explain the structure and functions of language? Learn how to analyse written texts, film and television by examining the theories of language and applying them to contemporary examples.

Nineteenth Century American Literature and Culture Optional

Nineteenth Century American Literature and Culture

In this period, the United States developed in terms of culture, economy, population - and ambition. This module will examine how writers of poetry, fiction and theatre depicted the events of this century, including the American Civil War, poverty and gender roles. If you want to understand the United States today, start here.

The Weird Tale Optional

The Weird Tale

The module aims to explore the development of the Weird Tale in Britain and the US from the late nineteenth century onwards, attempting to define the form, to examine its history, and to engage critically with its preoccupations.

Semester 2

Eighteenth-Century Literature (pre-1800) Core

Eighteenth-Century Literature (pre-1800)

This module will introduce you to a range of texts from the period 1700-1830. We will discuss them within their original cultural and historical contexts, including revolution, Romanticism and the Gothic.

Modernisms (post-1800) Core

Modernisms (post-1800)

This module is an introduction to the diversity of literary movements, ideas, and concepts grouped under the term 'Modernism'. You will study a range of texts, both fiction and poetry, produced in the early twentieth century when a number of writers broke with tradition and sought new ways of depicting the rapidly changing world around them.

The Marketing Mix Core

The Marketing Mix

The Marketing Mix – Year 2 module Listed in English with Business Studies and Drama with Business Studies
This module aims to examine the nature of the marketing mix and the contribution of each of the marketing mix elements to an effective marketing strategy.

Accounting for Managers Optional

Accounting for Managers

The aims of this module are: to introduce students to a range of technical and analytical skills; to illustrate the application of analysis in a business context; to evaluate the use of accounting and financial management in planning, decision making and control.

African American Culture Optional

African American Culture

On this module you will explore the complex formal and political questions raised by African American cultural expression produced between 1845 and the present. We will study a wide range of forms and media - literary, cinematic and musical - situating these in their shifting historical contexts, from the nineteenth-century American South to the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.

America at War Optional

America at War

America has been involved in major military conflicts in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries: World War 1, World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War. This module addresses war writing including the novel, poetry, drama, film, music, photo-journalism, and non-fiction. It enables you to develop critical awareness of the myriad ways in which writers and film-makers have responded to and imagined warfare.

Arts Management Optional

Arts Management

This module covers a range of issues related to arts management including: the economic and political landscape for the arts and creative industries, careers in arts management, funding for the arts, establishing and running an arts-based organisation, arts programming, curating, audience and customer development, finance and fundraising, marketing, time management and project management.

Company Finance Optional

Company Finance

This module examines the background to the financing of companies; the methods used to raise finance; and the implications of using different sources in an international context.

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art Optional

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art

This module identifies and addresses the central concepts, terminologies and debates concerning the relationship between art, activism and politics within society through a series of 20th-century and contemporary case studies. Be part of an online blogging community, work collaboratively and develop a reflexive approach to establishing your own perspective on socially engaged and activist forms of cultural practice.

Fashion Theory Optional

Fashion Theory

This module will introduce and critically examine some of the main theories of fashion. It will identify and survey modernist and post-modernist theories of the nature of fashion as well as of the production, meaning and consumption of fashion.

From Print to Digital: Publishing Revolutions Optional

From Print to Digital: Publishing Revolutions