| Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 13-19 |
| Abbreviation: APJCR |
| e-ISSN: 2733-8096 |
| Publication date: 31 August 2026 |
| Received: 13 June 2026 / Received in Revised Form: 23 July 2026 / Accepted: 15 August 2026 |
| DOI: https://doi.org/10.22925/apjcr.2026.7.1.13
|
The British Academic Written English Corpus (BAWE): Compilation, Research Applications, and AntConc-based Pedagogy |
| Bo Min Kim (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies), SOUTH KOREA; Chae Kwan Jung (Incheon National University), SOUTH KOREA |
| Copyright 2026 APJCR This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Abstract |
| This article reexamines the British Academic Written English Corpus (BAWE) as a resource for investigating university assignments and supporting corpus-based writing education. Drawing on corpus documentation and five studies, it reviews BAWE’s compilation, stratified sampling, analytical units, genre classification, metadata, versions, research applications, and pedagogical potential. BAWE contains 2,761 assignments and 6,506,995 words produced in the early 2000s by undergraduate and taught master’s students at several British universities. The review shows that university writing extends well beyond essays to thirteen genre families and that disciplinary and genre differences may outweigh level-related variation. Research using BAWE indicates that advanced writing may rely more on complex noun phrases than subordinate clauses, that lexical bundles reveal disciplinary relationships, and that successful writers with different first-language backgrounds use cohesive resources in varied ways. Strengths include authentic assessed writing and rich contextual metadata. However, differences among assignments, independent texts, genre units, and corpus versions complicate replication. Selection of higher-rated work, uneven subgroup sizes, and limited temporal and institutional coverage constrain generalization. Three AntConc activities are proposed: comparing first-person expressions across genres, contrasting BAWE with MICUSP, and developing discipline-specific writing guides. BAWE remains valuable when findings are interpreted within genre, discipline, level, and assessment contexts. |
Keywords |
| British Academic Written English Corpus (BAWE), University Student Writing, Academic Writing Genres, AntConc, Data-Driven Learning |
References |
| Alsop, S., & Nesi, H. (2009). Issues in the development of the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus. Corpora, 4(1), 71-83. https://doi.org/10.3366/E1749503209000227
Anthony, L. (2026). AntConc (Version 4.4.2) [Computer software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/AntConc Coventry University. (2025). British Academic Written English Corpus (BAWE). Retrieved June 12, 2026, from https://www.coventry.ac. uk/research/research-directories/current-projects/2015/british-academic-written-english-corpus-bawe/ Durrant, P. (2017). Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation in university students’ writing: Mapping the territories. Applied Linguistics, 38(2), 165-193. Gardner, S., & Nesi, H. (2013). A classification of genre families in university student writing. Applied Linguistics, 34(1), 25-52. Gardner, S., Nesi, H., & Biber, D. (2019). Discipline, level, genre: Integrating situational perspectives in a new MD analysis of university student writing. Applied Linguistics, 40(4), 646-674. Heuboeck, A., Holmes, J., & Nesi, H. (2010). The BAWE corpus manual (Version III). British Academic Written English Corpus Project. Retrieved June 12, 2026, from https://www.coventry. ac.uk/globalassets/media/global/08-new-research-section/current-projects/bawemanual-v3.pdf Jung, C. K., & Wharton, S. (2012). Finding textual examples of genres: Issues for corpus users. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics, 12(1), 129-148. Nesi, H. (2008). BAWE: An introduction to a new resource. In A. Frankenberg-Garcia (Ed.), Proceedings of the 8th Teaching and Language Corpora Conference. ISLA Lisboa. Retrieved July 11, 2026, from https://warwick.ac.uk/ fac/soc/al/research/collections/bawe/papers/talc8.pdf Nesi, H., & Gardner, S. (2012). Genres across the Disciplines: Student Writing in Higher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nesi, H., & Moreton, E. (2012). EFL/ESL writers and the use of shell nouns. In R. Tang (Ed.), Academic Writing in a Second or Foreign Language: Issues and Challenges Facing ESL/EFL Academic Writers in Higher Education Contexts (pp. 126-145). London: Continuum. Nesi, H., Sharpling, G., & Ganobcsik-Williams, L. (2004). Student papers across the curriculum: Designing and developing a corpus of British student writing. Computers and Composition, 21(4), 439-450. Nesi, H., Gardner, S., Thompson, P., & Wickens, P. (2004). British Academic Written English Corpus [Data set]. Oxford Text Archive. Retrieved May 7, 2026, from https://ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repository/ xmlui/handle/20.500.12024/2539 Römer, U., & O’Donnell, M. B. (2011). From student hard drive to web corpus (part 1): The design, compilation and genre classification of the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP). Corpora, 6(2), 159-177. Staples, S., Egbert, J., Biber, D., & Gray, B. (2016). Academic writing development at the university level: Phrasal and clausal complexity across level of study, discipline, and genre. Written Communication, 33(2), 149-183. University of Warwick. (2025). BAWE (British Academic Written English) and BAWE Plus collections. Retrieved May 7, 2026, from https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collections/bawe/. |
The Author |
| Bo Min Kim is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Foreign Language Education, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea. She holds an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the Institute of Education, University of London. She earned her PhD from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, specializing in English language teaching methodology. She is the co-author of A Walk Through English with My Child: A Smart Parent’s Guide to English Learning (2021). Her research interests include corpus linguistics, genre analysis, and Korean EFL learners’ motivation to write.
Chae Kwan Jung is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Incheon National University, South Korea. He holds a BEng (Hons) in Manufacturing Engineering and Japanese from the University of Birmingham, UK, and an MSc in Engineering Business Management and an EdD in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching from the University of Warwick, UK. He is the founder of the Institute for Corpus Research (ICR) and the founding editor of the Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research (APJCR). His research interests include corpus linguistics, English language education, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), language assessment, and curriculum design and development. His current interests include data-driven learning, AI-assisted language pedagogy and translation, and the application of ESP-informed genre- and corpus-based approaches to language teaching and learning. |
The Author’s Address |
| First Author Bo Min Kim Visiting Research Fellow Institute of Foreign Language Education Hankuk University of Foreign Studies 107 Imun-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02450, SOUTH KOREA E-mail: b.m.kim.marieanna@gmail.com Corresponding Author |
