This document discusses a pilot project to develop corpus-based activities to improve chemistry undergraduates' academic writing skills. It created activities utilizing a corpus of student writings to highlight linguistic techniques. A workshop presented activities on academic voice, reporting verbs, nominalization, and connectives. Student feedback found the activities quite or very useful and they were likely to access the corpus independently. Future plans include expanding the activities and running annual workshops to integrate them into writing training.

1. Development of corpus-based
activities to improve the academic
writing skills of chemistry
undergraduates
Pippa Coffer and Jacquie Robson
Department of Chemistry, Durham University
Megan Bruce and Simon Rees
Foundation Centre, Durham University

2. The Problem
• Level 3 students are required to write an extended essay:
• BSc students - a 10,000 word Dissertation
• MChem students – a 3,000 word Literature Perspective
• Feedback indicates that students feel that they have limited
experience in this kind of exercise
• Generic ‘academic writing training’ already provided, but
something more interactive and specific to chemistry is
desirable

3. Solution?
• The production and use of corpus-based activities utilising the
resource developed in the FOCUS (FOundation CorpUS)
project1:
https://community.dur.ac.uk/foundation.focus/
• The corpus contains a wide range of Durham University
undergraduate and postgraduate student writings
• The corpus can be used to look at words and phrases in
context to assist students in identifying appropriate use of
language
1Bruce, M & Rees, S (2013). Can I have a word please? - Supporting learning at Foundation level
through use of a corpus of student-generated texts. Online Educational Research Journal 4(12).

4. Pilot Workshop
• Chemistry-specific corpus-based activities were prepared,
with the aim to build student confidence in scientific
academic writing by highlighting different linguistic
techniques
• Activities designed to be used in a workshop, with a view to
them being developed for use as a resource for self-study
• Delivered in a classroom setting during ‘Dissertation’ and
‘Literature Perspective’ training week for a small volunteer
group of level 2 students (alongside generic training)

5. Activities
All activities use the corpus to identify common uses of words or
phrases in scientific writing.
• Academic Voice and Informal Language
Avoid use of personal pronouns (I, me, you etc)
Avoid use of contractions (don’t, can’t etc)
Loads of this colour is because of the pigments used.
Much of this colour is a consequence of the pigments used.
• Reporting Verbs
Use of verbs such as claims, argues, refutes rather than says

6. Activities
• Nominalisation
Using noun phrases rather than verb phrases
We can date these using analytical methods.
The ability to date these objects requires analytical methods.
• Connectives
Durham is a university which is highly ranked for research.
It has excellent student satisfaction ratings.
Durham is a university which is highly ranked for research and
has excellent student satisfaction ratings.
Durham is a university which is highly ranked for research.
Moreover, it has excellent student satisfaction ratings.

7. Student Feedback
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Academic voice/informal
language
Affixes/Etymology Reporting Verbs Nominalisation Connectives
Very useful
Quite useful
Not very useful
Not at all useful
How useful did you find these activities?

8. Student Feedback
Which of these activities would you repeat as a self-study activity?
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Academic
voice/informal
language
Affixes/Etymology Reporting Verbs Nominalisation Connectives
Yes
Maybe
No
No answer

9. Student Feedback
• Would you be likely to access the corpus by yourself outside
of the classroom?
100% answered yes!

10. Student Feedback

11. Future Plans
• Develop existing and additional Chemistry-specific activities
for self-study use
• Develop activities to look at punctuation
• Run similar workshop(s) in October for remaining level 3
students
• Run workshop(s) annually for level 2 chemistry undergraduate
students
• Make all activities accessible from multiple platforms

12. Acknowledgements
• Megan Bruce and Simon Rees, Foundation Centre,
Durham University
• Durham University, Enhancing the Student Learning
Experience Award
• HEA
Thank you for listening!
p.k.coffer@durham.ac.uk ; j.m.robson@durham.ac.uk