Check Out Corpora

Everyone knows what a dictionary is but have you heard of corpora? A dictionary will tell you what a word means, but a corpus will show you how it is used in authentic contexts. Corpora have been around for the last few decades and while their use is not mainstream quite yet, they can be very handy, especially if English is not your first language.

There are many different corpora out there, but check out COCA, the Contemporary Corpus of American English. It's free to use but requires registration. Sign up, search a word or phrase, and find expressions you can use in your writing.

In this screenshot, the search term "purpose of this paper is to" is highlighted in green. We can see in the condordance lines that common next words are describe, explore, examine, identify, select, critically evaluate, review, uncover, better understand, enhance awareness of, promote, discuss, and many more. Use corpora to find common expressions, confirm correct articles or prepositions, check your spelling, or make sure the words you want to use are in fact common expressions and not plagiarism.

Want to learn more about using corpora to improve your writing?

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