Daniel Kies
Department of English
College of DuPage
Composition and
Modern English GrammarContact Form Find and Replace Text:
A Tool for Research
Instructions: (See also the suggested uses further below.)
- Type your text into the text box below. It is possible to copy and paste the text into the text box (or a word processor later).
- Type in the phrases, words, marks of punctuationor other parts of a word that you wish to find and replace in your text.
- Click on Begin.
- You can count the times an item occurs in your text by using Count Instances.
- Click on Clear all fields to delete all text from all boxes.
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The lexicon (the set of words and morphemes in a language and a speaker's knowledge of them) that writers choose has a dramatic effect on their writing style. You can use the Find and Replace Utility to explore how changes in the lexicon change the "stylistic impact" of your writing.
Exercise 1: Search for a style marker. There are several constructions and vocabulary items that are the marker of a less formal style. For example, writers are more likely to use contractions, such as n't for not in less formal writing. To explore how changing this one marker of informal writing can alter the stylistic level of your writing, search for items like n't, 'd, 'll and 's. Replace them with not, had, will, and is. (However, 's might also be a contraction for has, so you might find some verb form errors in your text after that replacement.)
You could search for other style markers as well, replace them, and explore how such changes in vocabulary change the tone of your work. For example, try changing the second person you to people or students or some other more specific noun. This change eliminates a usage error called point of view shilft, as in changing You should study hard if you care about the future. to Students should study hard if students care about the future. (A global replace for you will change some legitimate uses of the pronoun for direct address to the reader however.)Exercise 2: Search for an overused transitional element. After studying the types of coherence and cohesion devices in English, search for those devices in your own documents, and change any coordinators at the beginnings of sentences to something else. For example, change overused markers of addition at the beginning of sentences, such as And, to Additionally or Furthermore. Or try changing commonly used coordinators of contrast such But to others such as However or On the other hand at the beginning of sentences.
Note! To replace text with better results, try adding spaces before and/or after the word you wish to change to be sure that you change just that word. For example, if you search for and replace you with people without adding preceding and following spaces, you will also change your, yours, youth, and young, etc. into peopler, peoplers, peopleth, and peopleng, respectively. Exercise 3: Study the differences between coordination with and and asyndetic coordination with punctuation. Rather than using and as the sole marker of coordination between clauses, try using punctuation (the semicolon) as the link between clauses. Search for a comma, a space, and the word and (as in , and), replacing them with a semicolon and an empty space (by tapping the space bar), i.e., ; Refer to our discussion of coordination and subordination for more about the differences between these two types of coordination.
If you would like to explore how changing vocabulary or punctuation might improve or provide insights into your own writing, look also at the HyperTextBooks' Concordancer and the suggestions for more experiments with writing style you can find there. Please feel free to email me with your ideas and suggestions for more exercises or uses you discover for the find and replace utility.
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