Oxford University Press and the Radio 2 500 Words competition 2012
Oxford University Press is going on a word hunt to provide language research to BBC Radio 2 and BBC Learning, to support the children's writing competition 500 Words run by the Chris Evans Breakfast Show.
Last year's inaugural competition was a great success with almost 30,000 entries from kids across the UK.
Chris Evans said: 'We were overwhelmed last year to be inundated with thousands of truly creative and fantastic entries from nearly 30,000 kids, and in 2012 we need your help to make the competition even bigger than before. To read is good, but to write is even better and dare I say it, can even be more fun.'
To find out more information about the 500 words competition, visit www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/500words/2012
Oxford University Press will collect and analyse all the words in the stories entered into the 2012 BBC 500 Words competition. With the help of the Oxford Children's Corpus (see below), we will explore the way children use language today; pick out their favourite words, discover new words, and even look at how they use punctuation for dramatic effect! In addition, we will also look at age, gender and regional language differences.
The research will be provided to the BBC and will also assist Oxford University Press with their on-going language research and dictionary compilation programme.
Susie Dent, Language Commentator and TV star said: 'What a fantastic opportunity to learn about children's language and delve into the wonderful world of words to discover current language usage. I am looking forward to seeing what the Oxford Children's Corpus uncovers.'
What does the Oxford Children's Corpus do and who uses it?
The Oxford Children's Corpus is a large electronic database of real, authentic children's language. The Oxford Children's Corpus provides evidence for language theorists and practitioners of how children's language behaves and identifies patterns in language, looking specifically at grammatical structures, child-related vocabulary and is an ideal resource for statistical frequency analysis of words.
The Oxford Children's Corpus is used by lexicographers and linguists as part of OUP's on-going language research and dictionary compilation programme.
Currently, the Oxford Children's Corpus contains language written FOR children (31 million words) and also language written BY children (1 million words). It is a highly sophisticated software tool that is accessed by the OUP lexical team.
Find out more about our Children's Dictionaries
Top Writing Tips
How can you turn a run-of-the-mill piece of fiction into something more lively?
Use descriptive words: for example think about interesting shade of colour: not just white light but pearly light; not just dark sky, but inky sky.
Be specific: how exactly does your character say something? Do they bark it out loudly, blurt it out suddenly, splutter it out unclearly, or murmur it tenderly?
Using your senses can really liven up your descriptions. Think about how a place looks and smells, or how an object feels or tastes.
Be creative by making up you own words, especially for characters and settings.
Remember, keep writing. Good writers are made, not born, and it takes time to develop your skills.
There’s lots of extra writing help for budding writers in Oxford’s children’s thesauruses. Our dictionary and thesaurus selector will point you in the right direction to find the right thesaurus for any child from age 5 to 16.