LANGUAGE CENTER - STANFORD UNIVERSITY
As a Tool for Academic Writing
NOTE: THIS SITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT WHILE IT HAS SOME USEFUL INFORMATION, IT IS STILL QUITE INCOMPLETE AND HAS ONLY BEEN PLACED ONLINE FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES.
IT IS MISSING A LOT OF CONTENT AND SOME OF THE LINKS MAY NOT WORK.
Welcome
This site is intended for both English language students and writing instructors. The goal is to help visitors learn to use Google as a resource for discovering "conventional language forms" involving both grammar and word choice.
Google as a tool for academic writing has four main sections.
Google Basics covers Google and the search features most relevant to the task of identifying conventional language forms. Everyone should go through this section, even if you think you already know how to use Google.
Google for Students introduces students to using Google to help edit drafts for conventional language forms along with a few other helpful tips. Teachers can review this section as well.
Google for Teachers provides directions on ways to use Google when responding to student papers or conducting tutorials (my personal favorite) as well as suggestions for classroom activities involving Google.
Extras, as the name implies, is a space for anything that doesn't fit readily in the other parts including useful references, other Google functions, other search engines, and so on.
Anyone attempting this should be forewarned that this is not what Google was designed for. Google is not a dedicated grammar or style checker, it won't fix everything, and the people who manage the site have a habit of adding and removing features constantly. This can be frustrating. But at the moment at least, Google is free, fast, and very powerful. If you spend some time learning to use it more effectively, you won't be disappointed.
This site was designed to support writing for academic English. However, a lot of the techniques presented are usable for other purposes and other languages. I hope you find it useful.
Phil Hubbard
English for Foreign Students Program
Stanford University