Writing Inspirations, Spring 2016 Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Session 2 Intro to Online Tools for Writing 1/13/15 2

Online tools for writing

What can an English-English dictionary offer to you? A good dictionary lists the most current & important words provides simple, clear definitions of words explains the grammar pattern of a word gives you helpful example sentences lists synonyms, related words and opposites shows differences between British and American English spelling and meaning and much more…stress patterns, etymology... 1/13/15 4

Links to online dictionaries & thesauri (plural of thesaurus!) Either google for ‘online dictionaries’ Or open the Word-document ‘Online dictionaries’ in Moodle Session 2 Compare at least two different online dictionaries as you go through the following tasks 1/13/15 5

Links to online dictionaries & thesauri Here are just a few links to online dictionaries and a thesaurus: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/ Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary Macmillan Dictionary & Thesaurus http://www.macmillandictionary.com/about_thesaurus.html 1/13/15 6

Exploring an online dictionary page Look up the following words in an online dictionary: (1) costs (noun) – (2) costly – (3) cotton – (4) cot What observations can you make in terms of words that are frequently used with (1) costs; style and usage information of (2) costly; grammatical usage information of (3) cotton; usage information and meaning of (4) cot??? 1/13/15 7

Using Google to solve language problems Google works well as a dictionary search tool. If you run into an unfamiliar word or expression, just ‘google’ it: For example, google the word collocation. Google also allows you to limit your search to definitions only: type define collocation What does ‘collocation’ mean? How does knowing collocations help you with writing in English? 1/13/15 8

Using Google to solve language problems With Google, you can also check your grammar knowledge: You might be uncertain of which preposition to use with the verb to depend: should you say something depends on or depends of? Search for the “exact phrase” and observe how many results you get. Can you draw any conclusions from the number of hits? 1/13/15 9

Using Google to solve language problems Use the * wildcard to search for a word that best matches a fixed expression For example "play a * in" “play a * part in“ Which words seem to most often occur in place of the asterisk ( * ) above? 1/13/15 10

Using Google to solve language problems Google allows you to specify that your search results come from a given website or domain  this will increase the reliability of your results information technology:nytimes.com edu.au:academic writing 1/13/15 11

Exploring a thesaurus/ thesauri Go to an online thesaurus http://www.thesaurus.com/ Type in any word you like. Discuss the benefits and challenges of using a tool like this. 1/13/15 12

Homework for next week: Write your Blog Entry 2 (at least 150 - 200 words) on what you learned or found useful. You can also discuss an online tool you use that was not mentioned in my slides. Submit your blog entry in Mycourses Session2 by the end of week 2 of the course. 1/13/15 13