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The Academic Phrasebank largely draws on an approach to analysing academic texts originally pioneered by John Swalesin the 1980s. Utilising a genre analysis approach to identify rhetorical patterns in the introductions to research articles, Swales defined a 'move' as a section of text that serves a specific communicative function (Swales, 1981,1990). This unit of rhetorical analysis is used as one of the main organising sub-categories of the Academic Phrasebank. Swales not only identified commonly-used moves in article introductions, but he was interested in showing the kind of language which was used to achieve the communicative purpose of each move. Much of this language was phraseological in nature.

The resource also draws upon psycholinguistic insights into how language is learnt and produced. It is now accepted that much of the language we use is phraseological in nature; that it is acquired, stored and retrieved as pre-formulated constructions (Bolinger, 1976; Pawley and Syder, 1983). These insights began to be supported empirically as computer technology permitted the identification of recurrent phraseological patterns in very large corpora of spoken and written English using specialised software (e.g. Sinclair, 1991). Phrasebank recognises that there is an important phraseological dimension to academic language and attempts to make examples of this explicit.

Sources of the phrases

The phrases in this resource have been taken from authentic academic sources. The original corpus from which the phrases were 'harvested' consisted of 100 postgraduate dissertations completed at the University of Manchester. However, phrases from academic articles drawn from a broad spectrum of disciplines have also been, and continue to be, incorporated.

In most cases, the phrases have been simplified and where necessary they have been 'sifted' from their particularised academic content. Where content words have been included for exemplificatory purposes, these are substitutions of the original words. In selecting a phrase for inclusion into the Academic Phrasebank, the following questions are asked:

does it serve a useful communicative purpose in academic text?

does it contain collocational and/or formulaic elements?

are the content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) generic in nature?

does the combination 'sound natural' to a native speaker or writer of English?

When is it acceptable to reuse phrases in academic writing?

In a recent study (Davis and Morley, 2013), 45 academics from two British universities were surveyed to determine whether reusing phrases was a legitimate activity for academic writers, and if so, what kind of phrases could be reused. From the survey and later from in-depth interviews, the following characteristics for acceptability emerged. A reused phrase:

should not have a unique or original construction;

should not express a clear point of view of another writer;

may be up to nine words in length; beyond this 'acceptability' declines;

may contain up to four generic content words (nouns, verbs or adjectives which are not bound to a specific disciplinary domain).

Some of the entries in the Academic Phrasebank contain specific content words which have been included for illustrative purposes. These words should be substituted when the phrases are used. In the phrases below, for example, the content words in bold should be replaced:

X is a major public health problem, and the cause of ....

X is the leading cause of death in western-industrialised countries.

The many thousands of disciplinary-specific phrases which can be found in academic communication comprise a separate category of phrases. These tend to be shorter than the generic phrases listed in Academic Phrasebank, and typically consist of noun phrases or combinations of these. Acceptability for reusing these is determined by the extent to which they are used and understood by members of a particular academic community.

Further work

One current project is to make the whole of the Academic Phrasebank downloadable as a PDF file. This will also include sections of academic style, punctuation and common errors. Research is currently being carried out on how experienced and less-experienced writers make use of the Academic Phrasebank.

References

Bolinger, D. (1976) 'Meaning and memory'. Forum Linguisticum, 1, pp. 1-14.

Davis, M., and Morley, J. (2018) 'Writing with sources: how much can be copied?'. In Student Plagiarism in Higher Education, edited by Diane Pecorari and Philip Shaw. Oxford: Routledge, 2018

Davis, M., and Morley, J. (2015) 'Phrasal intertextuality: The responses of academics from different disciplines to students' re-use of phrases'. Journal of Second Language Writing 28 (2) pp. 20-35.

Davis, M. and Morley, J. (2013) 'Use your own words: Exploring the boundaries of plagiarism'. In EAP within the higher education garden: Cross-pollination between disciplines, departments and research, John Wrigglesworth (Ed.). Proceedings of the BALEAP Conference, Portsmouth 2011. Reading: Garnet Education.

Hopkins, A. & Dudley-Evans, A. (1988). 'A genre-based investigations of the discussions
sections in articles and dissertation'.English for Specific Purposes, 7(2), 113-122.

Pawley, A. and Syder, F.H. (1983). 'Two puzzles for linguistic theory: nativelike selection and nativelike fluency'. In: Richards, J.C. and Schmidt, R.W. (Eds.), Language and Communication, pp. 191-226. Longman: New York.

Sinclair, J. (1991) Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Swales, J. (1981). Aspects of article introductions (Aston ESP Research Report No. 1). Birmingham: Language Studies Unit: University of Aston.

Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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About Academic Phrasebank - Academic Phrasebank

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The Academic Phrasebank largely draws on an approach to analysing academic texts originally pioneered by John Swales in the 1980s. Utilising a genre analysis approach to identify rhetorical patterns in the introductions to research articles, Swales defined a 'move' as a section of text that serves a specific communicative function (Swales, 1981,1990).

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Environmental writing

Writing is a good way for students to express and anchor their knowledge and opinions about the environment. To support that as well as Earth Day and Arbor Day, we have collected 12 inspirational images and 8 prompts for writing about environmental protection, recycling, tree planting and litter collection.

1. Create a book of things you and your family can do to help protect the environment.

2. Write a book for your school library about how you and your friends can use less water, plastic, power, paper or other resources to protect the environment.

3. Write a book to a local or national politician about why it's important to save the environment and what you think needs to be done in your community, city, state or country.

4. Imagine you are the earth, what would you say to the people of the world to help them care for the environment.

5. Why is it important to recycle? What litter can be recycled and how can it be reused?

6. Write, based on your litter-collection experiences, a series of suggestions on how to get people to stop littering.

7. Why are trees so important for the earth? Make a list of how trees contribute to your everyday life.

8. Write a how-to book on how to plant and grow a tree.

Login on app.writereader.com to see the Earth Day and Arbor Day image selection.

Bake Up a Delicious Book!

Students can use their everyday experiences with food along with the 24 selected images of popular dishes and 8 writing prompts below as a starting point for creating books and improving literacy learning.

1. Write a book about your three favorite foods that help your body grow. Explain why you like these foods.

2. What does a perfect day of meals look like for you? Examine and analyze food labels and menus. Describe their nutritional content, what you would like to eat from the time you get up until you go to bed and explain why.

3. Plan a healthy meal and write a recipe for that meal.

4. Write a book that will convince your parents to serve your favorite meal every day for an entire week. Describe the benefits of the major nutrients in the meal.

5. Describe a recipe or food you have cooked. What ingredients are in it, identify the types of nutrients that are in it, how did you prepare it?

6. Do you have a food-related family tradition? If so, describe and explain the importance of this family tradition. What makes it special to you and your family?

7. If you had to eat one food for the rest of your life, what food would you choose and why? Examine and analyze food labels and menus. Describe the nutritional content of the food you chose.

8. Read the story "Pancakes, Pancakes!" by Eric Carle and write your own version of the story.

At www.app.writereader.com you can find a cookbook template in the "Template library" that can support one or more of the above prompts.

Let Writing Bloom

Spring brings new life and beginnings in nature, and writing about spring is a wonderful way to encourage students'
writing to bloom and grow, as well. Below are 8 writing prompts that can bring new life to your students' writing.

1. Make a list of the signs of spring. Focus on the senses and include how spring looks, sounds, feels and smells.

2. Describe step by step one of the many spring transformation processes (e.g. egg to frog, egg to bird, seed to
plant, caterpillar to butterfly).

3. Write about a time when you played a good April Fools' Day joke on someone or when someone played a good joke on you.

4. Write a persuasive letter to the school principal, mayor, or politician to extend spring break an extra week.
List at least three good arguments.

5. Write about a perfect spring day, from morning to night. Describe 3-5 activities you would do throughout the
day.

6. What is the difference between spring and other seasons? List as many differences as you can.

7. Pretend that you are planning a spring party for your family or classmates. Write a book with ideas for the menu,
activities and maybe a speech for the spring party.

8. Many baby animals are born in the spring. Choose an animal and write about the similarities between parents and offspring. You can share physical characteristics, facts about the animals, and/or basic needs of the animal.

Log into app.writereader.com to find
and use the 26 supportive images for spring-related writing.

Lucky St. Patrick's Day Writing

You're in luck! You can easily let your students create books about pots of gold, rainbows, leprechauns, shamrocks, and the true meaning of St. Patrick's Day using WriteReader. For inspiration, you and your students can use the integrated St. Patrick's Day images and the suggested writing prompts below.

1. Why do we celebrate St. Patrick's Day and who was St. Patrick?

2. What do you like the most about St. Patrick's Day? Explain why.

3. How would you catch a sneaky little Leprechaun? Write the steps for catching a leprechaun and the kind of trap
you would use.

4. Why do people wear green on St. Patrick's Day?

5. Complete the following: "If I found the pot of gold, I would ...."

6. What treasure would you keep at the end of the rainbow, and why?

7. Write a story using the following words: Irish, rainbow, shamrock, and lucky?

8. Complete the following; When I woke up on St. Patrick's Day, I saw...".

Login on app.writereader.com to see
the St. Patrick Day image selection.

Easter, Eggs, Bunnies, and Writing

One of the sweetest holidays of all times is Easter. While kids will spend their free time mostly hunting for chocolate eggs, they can also use this time to boost their writing skills. Inspire your students to create stories related to Easter with the below 12 images and 8 writing prompts.

1. Why do we celebrate Easter?

2. Describe and explain the importance of your family traditions on Easter. How do you celebrate Easter? What fun Easter activities do you and your family do together?

3. Write a book where every page starts with the sentence: I love Easter because ...

4. How do you decorate your Easter eggs? Tell about your favorite Easter colors, decorations, and patterns.

5. What questions do you want to ask the Easter Bunny if you met?

6. Out of all the candies you receive on Easter; which one is your favorite and why?

7. Tell the story about how eggs and a rabbit are related to each other and Easter.

8. Write your own story about how Easter Bunny met up with the Easter Crocodile (or other animals) and how they become friends.

Login on to see and use the app.writereader.com
Easter image bank category.

From Minecraft to Writecraft

Minecraft is super popular and the game's universe can inspire and motivate many students to create text and books. To make it easier we have created a Minecraft image bank category with 20 images, along with 8 prompts in different genres and modes of writing.

1. Write a guide on what Minecraft is all about for someone who does not know the game.

2. Make a step by step guide on how to build a house in Minecraft.

3. Write a book with 5-10 tips, tricks, or special features that can make Minecraft more fun and exciting to play.

4. Write a review of Minecraft where you highlight the pros and cons of the game and compare it to other games you know.

5. If you were the inventor of Minecraft, what new features would you develop and why?

6. Tell about the difference between Survival mode or Creative mode. Which mode do you prefer playing and why?

7. Describe your best Minecraft project/game/moment and what made it so great.

8. Write a story about how Steve meets and befriends a zombie. Feel free to include other Minecraft characters and other actions.

Login on app.writereader.com to see all the
Minecraft images.

We Love to Write!

February 14th is Valentine's Day, but why not spread love throughout the whole month? To help you and your students do that, we have made an image bank category with 20 images specially selected to create books and express love. We have also created 8 writing prompts with love from us to you.

1. Write about a person that you love. What makes this person special?

2. Make a list of ways you could show your family that you love them.

3. Make a book about things you love the most and explain why you love these things (food, toys, books, etc).

4. Write about times when you felt loved. Describe what happened and why you felt special.

5. Write an acrostic poem starting the sentences with the letters from LOVE or HEART.

6. Write a book only containing sentences starting with "Love is..."

7. Write a silly love story about animals or other characters that are friends.

8. Write about ways to show love through kindness to your friends.

To get more writing inspiration read the blog post " February - The Month Of Love" .

Do you feel like writing about emotions with emojis?

It can be hard for children to express emotions and put into words how they feel. The emoji image bank category can be a great way to help students express emotions through writing. Additionally, the writing prompts and story starters below provide ideas for supporting social-emotional learning in your classroom using WriteReader books.

1. Make a daily or weekly check-in journal of your emotions . Write about different feelings you have had and
explain what makes you feel that way."Today I was happy because ..."

2. What do you do to turn a negative feeling into a positive emotion? "When I'm angry, I ..."

3. How can you help and support a friend or classmate if he or she is in a bad mood? "To help a sad friend, I ..."

4. Choose an emoji and make a list of the top 5 things that can get you in that mood. "Cool: 1. I feel cool
when ..."

5. Make a book with questions about emotions/feelings for one of your classmates and conduct an interview based on your questions. "When do you feel surprised?"

6. Write a story with emojis as the main characters. Tell how emojis in different moods can help support each other. "Three emojis lived together in ..."

7. Tell a story about an emoji who turned from one mood to another. What caused the mood in the first place and what made the change? "There was once a thoughtful emoji ..."

For more inspiration download our Emotions And Emojis Lesson Plan.

Tip: You can create templates to scaffold and support your student's writing.

New Year's Writing Prompts

The start of a New Year is a good time to both look back on the year behind us, and forward to what is to come. Putting these reflections and resolutions into words can be a great writing activity for your students. We have created a New Year image bank category and some sample writing prompts below to inspire you and your students!

1. What were the best things that happened to you and your family in 2020? What were you most grateful for?

2. Make personal Top 5 books based on best films, books, school projects, events, experiences, trips, deeds in 2020 and tell why they were special to you!

3. Describe and explain the importance of your family traditions on New Year. How did you celebrate the New Year? Where were you and who were you with? What did you do? Was the day different than usual due to covid-19? Why or why not?

4. What are the three things you are most looking forward to in 2021?

5. What are your main wishes for 2021 regarding yourself, your family, city/state, country and/or the world?

6. What are your New Year's resolutions for 2021? What will you need to do to keep your resolutions? Describe the importance of setting these goals.

7. What are your learning goals for 2021? What will you need to do to achieve your goals? How can your family, classmates, and teachers help you achieve your goals? Describe the importance of setting these goals.

8. What can you do in 2021 to show gratitude for and help friends, family and other people?

Login in on app.writereader.com to see all the New Year images and to begin writing your New Year's stories!

Thankful and thoughtful writing prompts

We've gathered a dozen images suitable for writing books about Thanksgiving, and hope the following nine writing prompts can inspire you and your students to write a lot of thankful and creative books.

1. Write one page each for the five things that you're most thankful for.

2. Describe and explain the importance of your family traditions on Thanksgiving.

3. If you could choose any guest to come over for Thanksgiving, who would it be and what would you like you to do together with that person?

4. Write about your favorite parts of fall, from morning to night. Describe 3-5 activities you would do throughout the day.

5. Write a recipe book for your favorite Thanksgiving dish. What ingredients are in it, identify the types of nutrients that are in it, how did you prepare it?

6. What happened after the stuffed turkey suddenly jumped down from the table?

7. Write a book with a Thanksgiving blessing to the people you love and want to thank.

8. Explain Thanksgiving to someone in another country, who has never heard about the tradition.

9. Describe and explain the importance of your family traditions on Thanksgiving. How will they be different this year due to the covid-19 pandemic?

Login to app.writereader.com to see all the Thanksgiving images.

Images to support students writing about covid-19

In these special times, it's very important to give children a voice and the opportunity to express their knowledge, thoughts, and feelings. Writing is an obvious form of expression that allows students to share their thoughts and knowledge with others and at the same time save their experience of a historical time.

To motivate and facilitate that process, we have put together a series of illustrations and writing prompts. Encourage students to use the image bank, voice search, call-outs (speech/thought bubbles), and record features to enhance their writing.

1. How has the pandemic affected your personal health decisions? At home, at school, in the community?

2. Write a guide on how to protect yourself, others, and your surroundings from the coronavirus.

3. Write a story about a superhero who saves a lot of people from the coronavirus and defeats the pandemic.

4. Tell about some experiences you have had during this time. How did you feel? What did you do about it?

5. Write a letter to your peers identifying people who can provide helpful health information and describing methods for accessing health information.

6. Write a thank you book to doctors, nurses, and all frontline workers.

7. Imagine that you invented the covid-19 vaccine and were allowed to inform others about the importance of immunizations. Create a book that explains the importance of immunizations and also decide who would receive the first doses and why?

8. What has your family been doing together during the pandemic? Have you done something you do not usually do or something you have done more or less of than usual?

Tip: Create your own WriteReader templates and share them with your students.

Scary content for Halloween writing

For the month of October, the following 20 new Halloween images will be available in the image bank to inspire spooky writing for your students.

Here are 8 writing prompts that will help scaffold students writing.

1. What is the scariest thing that you have ever experienced? What makes it so scary?

2. What was the best Halloween costume you have ever had? Write what made it so special.

3. What was the best Halloween you ever had? What made it great?

4. Explain Halloween to someone in another country, who has never heard of the celebration.

5. Create a list of corona safety rules for Halloween and Trick-or-Treating.

6. Would you spend a night in a graveyard or haunted house for $100? Why or why not?

7. Create and describe your very own monster. What does it look like? What is the monsters name? What's its most scary feature?

8. Write a scary trick-or-treating story, starting from the minute the main character puts on his/her costume and finishes when he/she puts on normal clothes again.

Create your own WriteReader Tip: templates and share them with your students.

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Writing is a good way for students to express and anchor their knowledge and opinions about the environment. To support that as well as Earth Day and Arbor Day, we have collected 12 inspirational images and 8 prompts for writing about environmental protection, recycling, tree planting and litter collection.

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Describing Words

The idea for the Describing Words engine came when I was building the engine for Related Words (it's like a thesaurus, but gives you a much broader set of related words, rather than just synonyms). While playing around with word vectors and the " HasProperty" API of conceptnet, I had a bit of fun trying to get the adjectives which commonly describe a word. Eventually I realised that there's a much better way of doing this: parse books!

Project Gutenberg was the initial corpus, but the parser got greedier and greedier and I ended up feeding it somewhere around 100 gigabytes of text files - mostly fiction, including many contemporary works. The parser simply looks through each book and pulls out the various descriptions of nouns.

Hopefully it's more than just a novelty and some people will actually find it useful for their writing and brainstorming, but one neat little thing to try is to compare two nouns which are similar, but different in some significant way - for example, gender is interesting: " woman" versus " man" and " boy" versus " girl". On an inital quick analysis it seems that authors of fiction are at least 4x more likely to describe women (as opposed to men) with beauty-related terms (regarding their weight, features and general attractiveness). In fact, "beautiful" is possibly the most widely used adjective for women in all of the world's literature, which is quite in line with the general unidimensional representation of women in many other media forms. If anyone wants to do further research into this, let me know and I can give you a lot more data (for example, there are about 25000 different entries for "woman" - too many to show here).

The blueness of the results represents their relative frequency. You can hover over an item for a second and the frequency score should pop up. The "uniqueness" sorting is default, and thanks to my Complicated Algorithm™, it orders them by the adjectives' uniqueness to that particular noun relative to other nouns (it's actually pretty simple). As you'd expect, you can click the "Sort By Usage Frequency" button to adjectives by their usage frequency for that noun.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source mongodb which was used in this project.

Please note that Describing Words uses third party scripts (such as Google Analytics and advertisements) which use cookies. To learn more, see the privacy policy.

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The idea for the Describing Words engine came when I was building the engine for Related Words (it's like a thesaurus, but gives you a much broader set of related words, rather than just synonyms). While playing around with word vectors and the " HasProperty" API of conceptnet, I had a bit of fun trying to get the adjectives which commonly describe a word.

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Thousands of copyright free and copyright friendly images and photos for teachers and students.