Add Google’s Ngram Viewer to Your List of Research Tools

Googles.
Ngram Viewer is a search tool that students can use to explore using words and names in books released in between 1800 and 2019. The Ngram Viewer reveals users a chart illustrating the very first look of a word or name in literature and the frequency with which that word or name appears in literature because 1800. The graph is based upon the books and periodicals that are indexed in Google Books.

Ngram Viewer is a search tool that students can use to explore the use of words and names in books published in between 1800 and 2019. The Ngram Viewer shows users a graph showing the very first look of a word or name in literature and the frequency with which that word or name appears in literature since 1800. The Ngram Viewer will let you compare the use of numerous words or names in one chart.

The Ngram Viewer will let you compare the use of numerous words or names in one graph. The example that I offer in this video is to compare using the terms “National Parks,” “National Forests,” and “National Forest Service.” By taking a look at the Ngram Viewer for those terms I can see that they begin to appear more often around 1890, have a lull in the 1940s and 1950s, and then appear more frequently again in the 1960s..
Ngram Viewer is based upon books indexed in Google Books. That is why below every graph generated by Ngram Viewer you will discover a list of books about each of your search terms. Those books are organized by date..
A 3rd component of Ngram Viewer to note is that it deals with several languages consisting of English, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Russian, Hebrew, and Spanish..

Applications for Education.
As I pointed out in the video above, the Ngram Viewer can supply an excellent way to start a research activity for trainees. Have them go into a few words then examine the chart to recognize peaks and valleys in the frequency of the words usage. Ask them to attempt to identify what would have triggered those words to be used more or less frequently at various periods in history.

By the way, the book that I pointed out in the video is That Wild Country by Mark Kenyon..

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