“The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation.”

Attribution status: I have contacted the author to ask him if he’d consider sharing as an OER text.

Review:

• Coverage, Context, Comprehensiveness
  • The Academic Phrasebank is a resource, rather than at textbook. Its phrases, and the headings under which they are listed, are used to assist academic writers in thinking about the content and organization of their own writing, and/or the phrases can be incorporated into their writing where appropriate. So yes, it does cover the topic(s) and is appropriate for the approach to the subject matter; the content is definitely adequate to address the topics/issues, etc. As far as standing on its own: I think it is helpful for novice writers/scholars (or even not-so-novice) to have a workshop with instructor commentary. That’s what I’m seeking to do: to provide an materials for a synchronous/asynchronous “workshop.”
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  Quality, Reliability, Currency
  • The content is definitely clear, well-written, and readable; it’s accurate, free of biases, errors and mistakes: grammatical, technical, and informational. The source is on the University of Manchester (UK)’s web site, so it is reputable. The creator is recognized in his field (he’s Director, The University-wide Language Programmes). In terms of currency: yes, to the extent that academic phrases are current.
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  Appropriateness for Course Level, Student Audience, Learning Outcome(s)
  • The target audience could be undergraduate, graduate, and post-doc scholars. The language is appropriate for all. “Does the content align well with one or more learning outcomes?” Is this question based on LaGuardia, or general courses? This is not for a course per se. “Is the content free of cultural biases and stereotypes? In not, can instructor commentary or other content serve to offset or provide more inclusive perspectives?” I would say yes. The academic phrasebank is really great for multilingual writers of English and the samples phrases are intentionally included to be reused (without risk of plagiarizing) under these criteria:
  • should not have a unique or original construction;
  • should not express a clear point of view of another writer;
  • may be up to nine words in length; beyond this ‘acceptability’ declines;
  • may contain up to four generic content words (nouns, verbs or adjectives which are not bound to a specific disciplinary domain).
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  Access, Accessibility, Format
  • The content os easy to access, in a usable format as is, and the content is easy to navigate; it can be made available for use offline, but for a price (see above: I have contacted the creator to ask if he would consider making it accessible as an OER.
  • TBD: Does the content meet accessibility requirements? If not, can one easily make appropriate changes or transform it into another medium, if desired? Consult your institutional standards or the OER Accessibility Toolkit (https://open.ubc.ca/teach/oer-accessibility-toolkit/).
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  Adaptable, Customizable, Open vs Free-to-Use
  • I’m not sure how to answer these questions: Is it easy to adopt just a portion of the content? Can it meaningfully be combined or assembled with other materials? Does it complement other materials for the course/unit?
  • It can fit well into the structure of a course assignment; I use it in a workshop I give about academic phrasebanks and the acceptable reuse of phrases in academic writing. Does the content fit well into the structure of a course assignment(s), activity(ies), etc.? Does the instructor need to make course modifications to accommodate the new content?
  • This is not licensed from what I could tell. It’s available free to use on the UofM-UK web site. I can only link to it, although I could purchase the PDF or Kindle version, but I would be probably violating copyright if I made copies. Do the licensing conditions allow for needed modifications? Does the content bear an open (Creative Commons) license, or a statement indicating the terms of use as free or free with conditions? Does it allow for download and reuse (making a copy) or can you only link to it?