Academic Writing: An Exploratory Study of Quadrigrams

Authors

  • Patricia P. Bértoli Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
  • Tania M. G. Shepherd Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Keywords:

Academic Writing, Key Quadrigrams, Learner Corpus, English as a Foreign Language.

Abstract

This study investigates a selection of key quadrigrams in a learner corpus of English as a foreign language. The corpus consists of written academic essays submitted by undergraduates as assigned homework. The analysis unveils the nature of the quadrigrams in terms of frequency, in addition to examining their cotext. It is argued that, collectively, the novice writers investigated use certain quadrigrams more often than their native counterparts. In addition, they use the same quadrigrams in inadequate cotexts.