The document discusses MICUSP, a corpus of 829 A-grade university student papers containing over 2.6 million words. MICUSP can be accessed online through MICUSP Simple, which allows users to browse papers by discipline, type, textual features, and student level. The corpus provides examples of language use that can help writers with concerns like using particular words or structures appropriately in their own work. A concordancer software allows searching corpora to analyze word relationships and usage patterns found in authentic texts.

1. Using a Corpus as a Tool for
Writers:
MICUSP
Judy Dyer

2. What is a corpus?
A large selection of naturally
occurring spoken and/or written
language available in digital
format.
Corpora are a useful resource for
linguists, lexicographers,
teachers, and students because
they provide instant access to
large amounts of authentic

3. Examples of Corpora
 Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken
English (MICASE) 1.7 million word corpus of
transcribed lectures, discussion groups, etc.,
compiled by the English Language Institute at UM
 British National Corpus (BNC), a 100 million
word corpus of written (90%) and spoken (10%)
language, including telephone conversations,
novels, student papers, and many other genres.
 BYU Corpus of American English (BYU CAE),
a 360+ million word corpus of written and spoken
language.

4. MICUSP
 The Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student
Papers
 829 „A‟ grade papers (roughly 2.6 million words)
Range of disciplines across 4 academic divisions*
of the University of Michigan (U-M), Ann Arbor
(*Humanities and Arts, Social Sciences, Biological
and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences).
 It can be accessed through an online interface
called MICUSP Simple, available at:
http://search-micusp.elicorpora.info/simple

5. BROWSING PAPERS IN
MICUSP
16 DISCIPLINES PAPER TYPES
 Argumentative Essay
 Creative Writing
TEXTUAL FEATURES  Research Paper
 Abstract  Report
 Definitions  Critique/Evaluation
 Discussion of results  Response Paper
 Literature review  Proposal
 Methodology section
 Problem-solution pattern
 Reference to sources
STUDENT LEVELS
 Tables, graphs or figures  Final year undergraduate
students (level G0)
 1st, 2nd and 3rd year
graduate students (levels
G1, G2 & G3)

6. General Uses of MICUSP
 To search for use of particular word(s)
 To search for collocations of words i.e.
information about with which word(s) a particular
word co-occurs
 To search for examples of particular text types (a
research proposal in Biology, a report in
Psychology)
 To search for examples of features of texts (e.g.
abstracts in Biology research papers, definitions
in Mechanical Engineering, how to introduce a
figure or graph)
 To look at frequencies of a particular phrase/word

7. MICUSP Simple top screen

8. Interact with graphs

9. Use further filter options

10. Get instant information about papers

11. Potential uses for MICUSP
 I don‟t know how to use “nevertheless.” Does it
always go first in a sentence?
 Is it “different from” or “different to”?
 How do I introduce a figure or graph in a Poli Sci
paper?
 How do I write a lit review for a psychology
paper?
 How do I write a definition in a biology paper?
 Is it ok to use “I” in a Mechanical Engineering
report?

12. Acknowledgments
 The Michigan Corpus Linguistics Team
(Ute Roemer and Matt O‟Donnell)
 John Swales – the initiator of corpus linguistics at
Michigan and a great educator and inspiration.

13. What is a Concordancer?
 Software which can be used to search, access,
and analyze language from a corpus.
 Useful in exploring the relationships between
words, and can provide information about the way
language is used.
 A concordancer allows us to enter a word or
phrase, and search for multiple examples of how
that word or phrase is used in everyday speech
or writing.