WordView

Text Check
Vocabulary
Discourse
Reference: Linkers ↗ Reporting verbs ↗

Text A

Original or first text
Paste a text, then select vocabulary and discourse features to explore. Click a discourse highlight for information; double-click an AWL word for its meaning.

Word frequency bands

1k is the first 1,000 word families; 2k is the next 1,000; 3k is the third 1,000. 4k+ covers the remaining bands. Select any combination.

These bands use the BNC/COCA lists. Frequency is not a difficulty score.

When AWL is selected, its orange colour takes priority in student view. Teachers can choose a different colour priority.

Discourse highlights

Discourse uses flat background highlights with separate colours for linker functions, reporting verbs, reference and substitution. Discourse takes priority where a vocabulary highlight overlaps; vocabulary counts are unchanged. Choose linker types to focus on particular functions or grammar. Grey-blue marks need checking in context. Source–claim roles also use plain highlights. Click a marked expression or sidebar item for information and examples; use ↗ for the full reference page.

Linkers connect ideas. Reporting verbs are possible reporting uses: check who is speaking and what is being reported. Reference and substitution marks are prompts to investigate; they do not identify an antecedent.

The source–claim map marks only explicit patterns within one sentence. Dotted marks need closer checking. Unmarked text is not a judgement that a source or claim is missing.

Linker reference ↗ · Reporting-verb reference ↗ · Open Discourse workspace ↗

How to use Text Check

For students

  1. Paste or type a text in the editor.
  2. Use the checkboxes to make AWL items, academic formulas and collocations easier to notice.
  3. Double-click an AWL item to see a short meaning, translation and dictionary links.
  4. Use the cards beside the text to review the items found.

BNC/COCA frequency bands

Choose 1k (first 1,000 families), 2k (second 1,000), or 3k (third 1,000) independently. 4k+ shows the remaining bands. Blue, green and purple distinguish the first three bands. AWL takes priority in student view when selected. Teachers can change the colour priority.

K-bands group words by frequency in the BNC/COCA lists. K1 contains the most frequent items; higher bands contain progressively less frequent items. Frequency can help you decide what to study, but it is not a difficulty score.

For teachers

Turn on Teacher mode for colour priority, readability, specifications, question checking, spreadsheet analysis and custom lists.

Highlighting is a prompt for closer reading, not a judgement about writing quality.

About Text Check

This tool helps students and teachers notice academic vocabulary, formulas and collocations in a text. Analysis happens in the browser; pasted text is not uploaded.

Sources and acknowledgement

The academic vocabulary highlighting draws on Averil Coxhead's A New Academic Word List (2000). Formula highlighting draws on Simpson-Vlach and Ellis's An Academic Formulas List (2010). Collocation highlighting uses Ackermann and Chen's Developing the Academic Collocation List (2013) and automatically extracted patterns from OpenStax textbooks. The 28 source editions use mixed licences: 25 are CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 and three are CC BY 4.0. This is a noncommercial, experimental corpus view. Per-example book attribution is being added; the current build should not be treated as cleared for redistribution.

Results are generated automatically and should be checked against the text and the cited source lists.