The English Miscellany

A Traditional Card Catalogue Critical evaluations and literature reviews employ an academic discourse. I've started to compose a list of the most frequently used words and phrases : Accentuated differences Acclaimed authors According to Account Acknowledge the issue Addresses Addresses the contradictions Adequate Adopts Advances the idea Almost all Analyses Arbitrary categories Argues Argument Assesses Attempts to challenge Bogged down Bold Breaks new ground Brief discussion Brings together By ignoring this Care with which Centres on Certain types of Challenges Charts Cited Combines analyses of Comments on Compelling argument Comprehensive Conceptual framework Concise Confesses Confides Connects Considered Contains Contradictions Contributors Trinity Library Dublin Conveys the sense Convincing Covers a range of topics Critics Debates about Dense literature Describes the ...

Fill in the missing letters to create common academic words: d__t__ct__d __ppr__c__ __t__ __n   d__v__ __t__ __n b__ __s __ h__rt __ l__r__ty c__nf__rm__ty __b__nd__n __cc__mp__n__ __d __ccumul__t__ __n   __mb__gu__us __pp__nd__x __rb__tr__ry   __ut__m__t__c__lly c__mpl__m__nt __ ruc__ __l __ urr__ncy d__n__t__      __ luctu__t__ __ns   d__spl__c__m__nt __ r__m__t__c c__nt__mp__r__ry __xpl__ __t__t__ __n   c__ntr__d__ct__ __n __v__ntu__lly   __xh__b__t __ u__d__l__n__s   c__mm__d__ty Check you answers in Sublist 8     The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed by Averil Coxhead at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand. The list contains 570 word families which were selected because they appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts. The list does not...

Have you heard of corpus linguistics ?  Corpus linguistics proposes that reliable language analysis is more feasible with corpora (samples) collected in the field, in their natural contexts, and with minimal experimental-interference. How did it all start? A landmark in modern corpus linguistics was Henry Kučera and W. Nelson Francis's Computational Analysis of Present-Day American English (1967). This work was based on the analysis of the Brown Corpus, a carefully compiled selection of about a million words, drawn from a wide variety of sources in current  American English How did technology help? The first computerized corpus of one million words of transcribed spoken language was constructed in 1971 by the Montreal French Project. This effort inspired Shana Poplack's much larger corpus of spoken French in the Ottawa-Hull area The analysis of academic writing shows that there are many  frequently used words and phrases : a form of...

Getting on top of the drama exam I've been trawling the exam boards and internet sites for examples of A-level / IB exam/essay questions on Drama. These questions are suitable for 16-18 year-olds. If you are 'lost for ideas' also take a critical look at my TWO compilations of key quotations : Tragedy: Selected Quotations Comedy: famous quotes Exam / Essay Questions: 1. Using two or three plays you have studied, compare the presentation of two or three characters [e.g. introduction, dramatic interactions with other characters], saying in each case how the presentation furthered the dramatists' purposes, and how it rewarded your study. 2. 'While the momentum of the play is carried by major characters, there is often a significant minor character who is a catalyst for change or enlightenment.' Compare the role of a significant minor character in in plays you have studied, showing how these characters contribute to the dramatic action. ...

The market is now flooded with guides to writing. There are specialist guides for every genre, ranging from the many branches of branch of creative writing and subjective reflections on artistic practice, through to new media, skills-specific workbooks and academic writing guides. Standing out from the crowd is increasingly difficult in the ‘writing about writing’ marketplace. And so many guides simply recycle the same material tediously. In addition, there is the challenge and competition of online guides that distil the mysteries of aesthetic excellence into the seven golden rules of wordcraft. Genuine writers are constantly pressured to teach their craft; their creative space is constantly at war with the busy hoards of the World of Wordcraft. So it is refreshing to come across a new anthology called Images of Life: Creative and Other Forms of Writing , which has been edited by Saptarshi Mallick and published in Calcutta, India, by Book World Publishers. The project was a glob...