Using Google as a Tool for Writing
Instruction
Phil Hubbard,
Click HERE for the PowerPoint of the talk or email efs@stanford.edu
for a copy.
Abstract:
Increasingly, language teachers are realizing the value of Google for language
support rather than just as an informational search engine. Although Google
lacks features of even a simple concordance program, such as wildcard functions,
it is a useful “quick and dirty concordancer” (Robb, 2003) that is free, fast,
and powerful, tapping into a corpus of over 3,000,000,000 web pages. This show
and tell highlights Google applications developed for an advanced ESL writing
class. However, as Google searches are not limited to English, the content is
relevant to other languages, skills, and levels.
The presentation focuses on a number of
techniques for using Google in providing lexical, grammatical, and stylistic
feedback on student papers, especially in face to face tutorials. For example,
if a student produces a phrase like “each 3 seconds”, instead of just
correcting it arbitrarily or attempting an ad hoc rule-based explanation, the
instructor can point to the following Google data: “each 3 seconds” = 59 hits;
“every 3 seconds” = 13,600 hits. In such cases, issues of correctness become
secondary to convention—with better than a 200-1 ratio, “every 3 hits” (or more
generally, “every n [plural noun]”) is the phrase to learn and use.
Examples of techniques covered include the
following: using quotations in searches, using cached pages to improve speed
and highlight items in context, using search limiters (such as “.edu” to
restrict the corpus to academic sites), using “X is a” and “X refers to” to
find definitions, using advanced search options, judging the relevance of
results (e.g., when a large number of hits come from non-native sources), using
Google’s image search as a picture dictionary, and keeping Google logs. These and
other techniques, along with appropriate examples, will be presented,
discussed, and made available on the presenter’s website for future reference.
Below is the handout I use in my
advanced graduate writing course—it covers much of what is discussed in the
September 2, 2004 presentation at EuroCALL Vienna.
Some Key Points for Using Google
Basics:
finding examples
1)
If
looking for a phrase, always use quotation marks (“ “) to get an exact match.
2)
Used
the cached version if available—it’s faster and highlights the search terms:
otherwise use the “find” command.
3)
For a
general phrase, add a keyword from your field of research.
4)
Try limiting
the domain. e.g. to “.edu” (but note what you miss that way).
5)
If
you aren’t sure of the basic commands, use advanced search.
6)
Remember
that you may need to try different combinations to get the most useful results:
if it’s important, don’t give up too early!
Basics:
interpreting examples
1)
Look
for examples in sentences, not headings: you may need to go to page 10 or even
later. You may also use the command “intext:” before your search term.
2)
Note
the source: Is it from the
3)
Be
sure the word or phrase is being used in the same sense as you intend.
4)
Numbers
alone are not enough, but huge differences in counts between alternatives are a
likely sign of the one with more hits being more grammatical or at least
conventional. In your field, would you rather be “right” or conventional?
Deciding what
to look up
1)
Think
of particular “problem phrases” for you; try alternatives that you think you
might have seen in papers you’ve read.
2)
If
you’re worried about articles, check article use in phrases you’re unsure of.
Remember in advanced search you can use the “not” option to check the phrase
with no article.
3)
If
you couldn’t think of a phrase but translated it instead, try putting your
translated phrase in Google to see if it exists widely: sometimes word for word
translations work; often they don’t.
4)
Anything
you’re unsure of is a good candidate. Don’t be shy about exploring.
Using Google
for enhancing reading
1)
If
you’re not sure what a word or phrase means, use Image Search for anything that
you think may have a picture on the web.
2)
Use
combinations of defining phrases to try to get a definition of a term,
especially a technical term or an idiom (but note Google’s definition function
first).
3)
If you find a
potentially useful word or phrase and aren’t sure how it’s used, put it into
Google to get contextualized examples. Add one or more keywords from your field
to increase the chances of finding relevant uses.
References:
Robb, Tom (2003) Google as a Quick 'n Dirty Corpus Tool. TESL Electronic Journal Online:
www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej26/int.html.
Calashain, Tara & Dorfest, Rael (2003) Google Hacks: 100 Industrial Strength Tips
and Tools.