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...
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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.c
om/
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary
Macmillan Dictionary & Thesaurus
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/about_thes
aurus.html
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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???
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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?
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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?
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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
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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 Moodle Session2
by the end of week 2 of the course.
1/13/15
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