verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a writing desk (=that you use for writing letters etc)
▪ Under the window was a small writing desk.
a writing/painting/dancing etc competition
▪ Greg won the school public-speaking competition.
a written agreement
▪ There is usually a written agreement between the borrower and the bank.
a written apology
▪ The police sent a written apology to the family.
a written confession
▪ A police interview may lead to a written confession.
a written constitution
▪ A written consitution forms the fundamental law of the nation.
a written contract
▪ All employees should have a written contract.
a written exam
▪ There is a written exam at the end of the course.
a written inquiry
▪ I submitted a written inquiry to the local council.
a written record
▪ Where written records do survive, they are incomplete.
a written report
▪ Mr Thomas asked me to send him a written report.
a written request
▪ If you wish to take you child on holiday during the school term, you must make a formal written request.
a written statement
▪ One neighbour said in a written statement that she often heard a baby ‘crying for help’.
a written test
▪ Selection was based on written tests in English and mathematics.
a written/oral examination
▪ For French, there is an oral and a written examination.
creative writing
▪ I teach creative writing at Trinity College.
keep/write a diary (=write regularly in a diary)
▪ While I was travelling, I kept a diary every day.
make/draw up/write a list
▪ Could you make a list of any supplies we need?
official/written/formal notification
▪ We received official notification that Harry was missing.
piece of music/writing/sculpture etc
▪ some unusual pieces of sculpture
reading/writing etc material(s)
▪ Videos often make good teaching material.
reading/writing skills
▪ Their reading skills are poor.
sth is written all over sb’s face (=their feelings can be seen very clearly in their expression)
▪ You’re jealous – it’s written all over your face!
talk/speak/write etc freely
▪ In France he could write freely, without fear of arrest.
▪ We went outside so that we could talk freely without being overheard.
write a book
▪ He’s written several interesting travel books.
write a chapter
▪ He wrote the first chapter 20 years before the book was published.
write a column
▪ He writes a column on gardening for the Daily News.
write a letter
▪ He wrote a letter inviting her to visit.
write a play
▪ So far, he has written three plays.
write a poem
▪ I’ve been writing short stories and poems for years.
write a prescription (also write out a prescription)
▪ I'll write you a prescription for some skin cream.
write a program
▪ They learned how to write their own programs.
write a report
▪ Her social worker has written a report on the case.
write a story
▪ The story was written by Lewis Carroll.
write an account
▪ He later wrote an account of his experiences during the war.
write an email
▪ Jack spent the evening writing emails and surfing the Internet.
write off/cancel a debt (=say officially that it does not have to be paid)
▪ The bank finally agreed to write off the debt.
write (out) a cheque
▪ I had to write a cheque for £360 yesterday.
write poetry
▪ I didn't know you wrote poetry.
write sth in code
▪ All the information we received during the war was written in code.
write (sth) in your diary
▪ ‘Severe weather’, he wrote in his diary that day.
write the answer
▪ Do we write the answers in the exercise book, Sir?
write up notes (=write down what your notes say, using full sentences and more detail)
▪ It’s a good idea to write up your notes soon after a lecture.
write/compose a song
▪ Do they write their own songs?
write/compose a tune
▪ They wrote many great tunes together in the 80s.
write/compose music
▪ He composed the music for the 'Lord of the Rings' films.
write/design/develop software
▪ He designs software for an Atlanta-based company.
write/do an article
▪ The Times have asked me if I will do an article on the election.
write/do an essay
▪ I’ve got a 3,000 word essay to write before Friday.
write/draw up/prepare a draft (=write one)
▪ Always write a rough draft of your essay first.
▪ He drew up a draft of the club’s rules and regulations.
writing desk
writing paper
writing/note paper (=good quality paper for writing letters)
▪ Can you fetch me a piece of writing paper and a pen?
writing/sketch/memo/legal etc pad
▪ a box of paints and a sketch pad
▪ Keep a telephone pad and a pen to hand.
written consent
▪ If you are under 18, you need your parents’ written consent to get married.
written instructions
▪ Each member of the team was issued with written instructions.
written permission
▪ Doctors need written permission from the patient before they can operate.
wrote...piece
▪ Robert wrote a short piece on the earthquake.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
about
▪ The story you choose should reflect the theme you want to write about.
▪ Red writes about feeling tired before the game, about feeling sick.
▪ Since that, we'd been touring constantly and written about twenty-five songs.
▪ Some students may write about the avoidance of a major depression, others about the decision to focus on high employment.
▪ Parents and step-parents are increasingly writing about step-family life in an attempt both to warn parents and inform practitioners.
▪ Is this the dual consciousness W E. B. DuBois wrote about?
▪ I have seen Shiraz and its roses and nightingales, which Gide wrote about but did not see.
▪ I write about how I have to write about my life to give it some shape, some order.
down
▪ Its prime target is an audience of decision makers whose names you can write down on a single sheet of paper.
▪ More interesting are problems where the answers can be written down, and even checked for correctness, in polynomial time.
▪ As they searched, they wrote down in a notebook details of all the things they found.
▪ I bought myself a notebook in which to write down ideas, themes.
▪ It was later written down in two books called the Mishnah and the Talmud.
▪ Anyway, Peter also had me write down some descriptions of the other members of the management committee.
▪ In normal speech, not all letters written down are sounded.
▪ Starting with: what did the doctors write down and not write down; what tests did they do and not do?
off
▪ As a result Ferranti had to write off £215million, reissue its annual report and negotiate financial support from its bankers.
▪ Many entrepreneurs expect to write off all their expenses.
▪ This increase did not account for almost £200 million written off through a change in accounting practices.
▪ They could write off all investments in the year they are made rather than spreading them out over a period of years.
▪ Back at the castle, Oyston had already written off the £100,000.
▪ The saxophonist had written off the States much as the States had written off him.
▪ The incidence of bad debt, he concluded, was socially unacceptable and financially disastrous. Write off or write back?
▪ The company said it is taking the $ 20 million charge largely to write off the unit.
to
▪ For your copy of the latest gift catalogue, please write to.
▪ It is best to phone the company before you write to find out the name of the person you should write to.
▪ To obtain a copy, write to or phone during working hours, Monday to Friday.
▪ To apply, write to:.
▪ If you have any problems or questions about your pet, write to.
▪ It is very important that you visit and write to or phone your child as regularly as agreed.
■ NOUN
article
▪ Nick Dimbleby wrote an article on police Range Rovers.
▪ Samuel wrote letters to both him and the reporter who wrote the article.
▪ I was nervous but determined, and came home to write and rewrite the article a dozen times.
▪ Was he ever sober enough to write the articles he had mentioned the day before?
▪ To win time and independence Cooley wrote books rather than articles.
▪ The author writes these articles as an architect in practice.
▪ Newspapers local, regional and international write admiring articles.
book
▪ Additionally, he wrote two substantial books.
▪ What do you think would happen if you wrote a book detailing your snafus?
▪ They have entered your mind and there they add to the charge with which you are writing your book.
▪ Sometimes these parents chose books for their children based on levels written on the book covers.
▪ You knew my husband very well; he wrote a book about waxworks and you helped him with his research.
▪ Rense, who spent about two years writing the book, says she already has begun work on a second novel.
▪ Make like you are prospective clients, looking to rent a secluded property to write a book or something.
▪ Nessim also wrote a book on the issues of life after cancer.
books
▪ Additionally, he wrote two substantial books.
▪ He was the man who wrote the books that progressive police departments read to get the answers.
▪ These are for the two people involved in writing the Project Video books.
▪ Resnick has written two books recounting Simpsons alleged mistreatment of his wife, who believed that he eventually would kill her.
▪ But this novel suggests that Rowling still wants to write big books and big cheques.
▪ I will be invited to present some lectures and some people will write better books and give some better lectures.
▪ A pledge not to write any more books would have done nicely.
▪ Q: Do you have any help writing your books?
column
▪ He writes a daily showbiz column for them.
▪ On the board she had written two columns of phrases.
▪ Sufficient has been written in your columns about the latter match so I will not repeat the facts.
▪ Herb Caen wrote a column like that.
▪ Among other old boys: Johnny Giles writes a regular football column in the Daily Mail.
▪ He writes a monthly column for Wired and was an original investor.
▪ I'd been writing a monthly column for Options as long as I'd been writing at all.
▪ Barry wrote a column about bad songs from the rock era and somehow managed to milk it into a book.
language
▪ Their written language was the most advanced of the pre-Columbian scripts, and their astronomical knowledge beyond compare.
▪ The proposal should be written in direct language.
▪ Being written in different programming languages, there was no literal similarity between the programs.
▪ In some cases, recent spelling reforms have helped to remedy the existing discrepancies between writing and language.
▪ It is written in simple non-technical language.
▪ A weekly publication that analyzes some 1, 700 different stocks, Value Line is written in plain language.
▪ It will also use ObjectStore to recognise code, data and objects written in different programming languages.
▪ Some children enter school after having participated in thousands of conversations about how written language tends to go.
letter
▪ Difficulties have arisen as to whether letters written to Ministers by M.P.s in the course of their duties are covered by absolute privilege.
▪ If only you could have seen the letter I wrote you about an hour ago!
▪ As a minimum, each issue of the publication would require another letter written for the occasion as information is requested again.
▪ The kind of letter writing in question here has nothing at all to do with word processing.
▪ It was a letter many students were writing, in outrage.
▪ Most of these letters, written by a friend or neighbor of the person seeking help, were only semiliterate themselves.
music
▪ Stock, Aitken and Waterman will write the music for the spectacular, which will get under way early in the new decade.
▪ He has taught himself to paint, to write music, play the flute, to write.
▪ For many young people now are confidently writing real music, using the idioms that come most naturally to them.
▪ Haydn wrote symphonies, chamber music, keyboard pieces, operas.
▪ I write my music on four staves, with indications of course.
▪ But he also is in a community symphony, plays in the school marching band, and writes music.
▪ Although he wrote chamber and orchestral music, songs were his true vocation.
name
▪ You see, when you win the National, you write your name into history.
▪ People must write her name on the ballot to vote for her.
▪ Because I was afraid, and tired, and ill, I wrote my name on the letter: Mary.
▪ She tore two pages from her ledger and wrote his name on one and hers on the other.
▪ He wrote in the name Hadley on the card.
▪ He was able to write his name, but in all other respects he behaved like an infant.
▪ You should write your name and address on the back of these photographs.
▪ Children who had never heard a bedtime story and could not write their own names were crammed into classrooms by the dozens.
note
▪ Before they headed onwards, Boswell wrote a note at their unappetising inn.
▪ But Summerlee was not to be found, and further time was consumed in writing a note for him.
▪ Ruth finished her coffee and rinsed her cup out before writing a note for Steve.
▪ Alvin wrote in a note to himself not long after the premiere of Revelations.
▪ She could have refused to write that note to her parents or walk obediently to the car and climb into the boot.
▪ During a time of meditation in that retreat, he wrote a note which survived.
▪ Then write another note with your name.
novel
▪ Nigel Tranter writes his novels on small cards while out walking.
▪ Although she has written two novels, the autobiography is her first published work.
▪ In total he has written five novels, all of which have won literary acclaim and awards.
▪ The News is now edited by Pete Hamill, who also writes novels.
▪ In the 1920s and 1930s Nina Boyle wrote a number of novels.
▪ My experience was limited largely to news and news feature writing until recently, when I ventured to write a novel.
▪ And he never wrote a novel.
▪ He became a doctor, and he treated poor people in the daytime, and he wrote grotesque novels all night.
paper
▪ He was lightly wounded at Detroit and wrote papers on ethnography, as well as collecting specimens wherever his career sent him.
▪ Passengers were offered a map of the route, postcards of places along the way, and writing paper.
▪ All investigators contributed to the writing of the paper.
▪ She wrote a one-page paper on preventative medicine, another on how stuffed animals were made.
▪ At first he had no press but, undaunted, wrote the paper by hand!
▪ In 1967, Lovelock wrote two papers predicting that Mars would be lifeless based on his interpretation of its atmosphere.
▪ Tosh said he didn't like some things that had been written about her in papers.
▪ Jack put the frustrations of the previous year from his mind and took a sheet of writing paper from his pocket.
piece
▪ Coffin was still pondering on the significance of what he had seen written on the piece of paper from Place's jacket.
▪ He takes his time, writing a bittersweet piece that encourages the ex-soldier to stop blaming himself for what happened.
▪ The marketing department writes the really important pieces.
▪ Anne had once written a piece about prison conditions.
▪ I have no evidence, but I think Grandmother must have been set up to be asked to write that piece.
▪ You said you were going to write a piece on opinion polls and then you wrote a story slandering the Prime Minister.
▪ I never got involved in this writing or in other pieces like it.
poem
▪ I've written some much better poems and they threw them back.
▪ One of my family, Arkady, wrote a poem about it.
▪ She started to write poems to express her feelings.
▪ But most enthralling was her attraction to two people for whom she wrote her most ardent poems.
▪ The ones proving I wrote his poems for him?
▪ The sight of the flag inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that later became our national anthem.
▪ I stopped writing my own poems.
▪ I studied painting, composed music, did some woodworking, wrote poems....
report
▪ Your syllabus may include slots for the development of certain skills such as listening to lectures or writing reports.
▪ In the classroom the groups are at work writing a summary report on the area.
▪ They will be talking to local people, organisations and authorities and writing a report on the route's suitability for upgrading.
▪ Rice thanked Drake and asked him to prepare a written report with recommendations.
▪ Be careful when writing: reports are for others, as an aide-memoire is for ourselves.
▪ Make an abacus and write a report about its usefulness in terms of place value and computation.
▪ You write reports on what the scope of the project should be and the various ways to tackle the project.
▪ Co. wrote in a report to clients today.
song
▪ I wrote all the songs and they were awful but that's the way you mature.
▪ I had written four or five songs on tour.
▪ Composer members often only one or two members of the band write songs.
▪ They began writing songs that afternoon.
▪ I only write songs about drugs!
▪ He wrote most of the songs on the album, once waking up at 6 a. m. with inspiration for lyrics.
▪ If a band don't write their own songs, the manager has to find the right songwriters.
▪ From that start Leiber and Stoller went on from 1951 to 1956 to write songs rarely heard by whites.
story
▪ But they should be aimed at if you are writing in short story form the equivalent of the crime novel.
▪ I try once more to write a story, but can not find the first sentence.
▪ I would write a story on my new Smith-Corona.
▪ But Hawthorne wrote great stories, you see, and we still read them now, more than a hundred years later.
▪ Before I die, I want to write the true story of my life for you.
▪ I wish I could say that I wrote steadily at the story of my life after that sudden burst of inspiration.
word
▪ She was an idiot, coming apart at the seams, and she hadn't written a word.
▪ Suddenly, in writing the words out, I see what she is trying to get us to see.
▪ They haven't written an original word, or vowel, ha ha ha!
▪ Even readers whose knowledge of the written word comes from cereal boxes are familiar with metaphors using battlefields and quicksand.
▪ Today was Saturday and she had not written a word since Thursday morning.
▪ With this approach, very young children do not write words, but are only drilled on alphabet letters and blends.
▪ The Bad ` Un's strategy is to prevent the written word from becoming food for hungry souls.
▪ Without the help of the written word, film and videotape can not portray temporal dimensions with any precision.
■ VERB
begin
▪ Until he begins to write cheques, i.e. to spend, nothing has happened to the balance sheet.
▪ They began when I started writing seriously in my late twenties.
▪ It was time now to begin to write letters.
▪ Demonstration 1. Begin by writing the term vibration on the board.
▪ He closed his eyes and began writing in his head.
▪ Sabi first began writing to his daughter Deena, who was born the summer before his arrest.
▪ When well on in his 90s, he began writing his memoirs.
▪ Perhaps I need some time to settle in before I can begin to write.
read
▪ This afternoon I read what I wrote about G.P. the day before yesterday.
▪ However, he has difficulty in reading and written expression.
▪ Should read or write errors occur, this database can be rebuilt from the image copy in conjunction with one of the log files.
▪ Whok Ianguage means that students learn to read and write by reading and writing, not performing endless drill exercises.
▪ Then it read through 14,000 written comments.
▪ Primo reads aloud the words written underneath.
▪ A model prisoner, he learned to read and write, even publishing a small book of poetry.
▪ We learned the skills but not the strategies of reading and writing.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be written/set/cast in tablets of stone
in writing
▪ I don't have anything in writing, but they said they expected me to start work Monday.
▪ Please confirm in writing the date you intend to leave.
▪ You should have asked them to put what they agreed in writing.
not worth the paper it is written on/printed on
sth is written in the stars
the writing is on the wall
▪ The writing is on the wall for old manufacturing industries.
▪ Although two points clear of the pack, the writing is on the wall for Aberdeen unless some one starts banging goals away.
the written word
▪ Millions of illiterate Americans do not have access to the written word.
▪ But literacy and the written word do have a part to play.
▪ Even readers whose knowledge of the written word comes from cereal boxes are familiar with metaphors using battlefields and quicksand.
▪ In fact, the 1959 Act has worked to secure a very large measure of freedom in Britain for the written word.
▪ Not only visual representation, but the written word, too, is not free of imperialism.
▪ The direct experience of oral communication was displaced by the second-hand experience of the written word.
▪ They record thoughts which apparently, at some moment in time, seemed worthy of the written word.
▪ Without the help of the written word, film and videotape can not portray temporal dimensions with any precision.
▪ WordPerfect word processing software handles both the written word and graphic interpretation with ease.
written test/exam
▪ After passing the written test, Solomon began his driving lessons.
▪ Applicants may take a written exam, undergo a preliminary interview, or submit records of their education and experience for evaluation.
▪ Knowing how to use your head is not a subject you can study for a written exam.
▪ Pudwill said only five passed among the 60 in his group that took the written test.
▪ Students had to pass oral and written exams before moving up.
▪ The written test success rates are given in the table below.
▪ The results are from written tests unless otherwise stated.
▪ Thus, although these pupils generally have difficulty with reading, this does not mean that written tests should be ruled out.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A lot of listeners wrote in and complained about the programme.
▪ an opera written by Verdi
▪ Anna enjoys writing, and she's quite good at it.
▪ At the bottom he wrote: "with sincere love from your oldest friend".
▪ By third grade they can all read and write pretty well.
▪ Do you want me to write that down for you?
▪ Hang on, let me just get something to write on.
▪ He wrote several scholarly articles on ancient Chinese texts.
▪ He wrote to his father, asking for more money.
▪ Helga wrote her comments neatly in pencil.
▪ I wrote down all the things we have to do today.
▪ I wrote the next song for my wife.
▪ I can't come out tonight. I have an essay to write.
▪ I don't have any cash - could I write you a check?
▪ I just wrote him saying how much I missed him being around.
▪ I learned to write when I was in first grade.
▪ I sit at the piano when I write.
▪ I try to write a cheerful letter to her at least once a week.
▪ I wasn't happy, so I wrote a nasty letter asking for my money back.
▪ It's a fascinating article, and very well written.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Writing, now, in the university, writing to try out new ideas, writing to redefine himself.
▪ A: Well, in the early years I was writing advertising, medical advertising.
▪ For works written at a time when Beethoven was still in his middle period, the lyricism in the works is extraordinary.
▪ I've got to write a story on this.
▪ McNulty wrote a song for Tom and Darlow wrote one for Grace.
▪ Scene: On the airplane home, you wrote a short report discussing the conference you just attended.
▪ Sportswriters are not allowed to write about death.
▪ Today, everything is wonderful, Bjaaland wrote in his diary.