Collocation in Academic Writing
Academic collocation is what separates passable C1 writing from fluent-sounding C1 writing. Native-academic English uses fixed verb-noun combinations: conduct research (not make), draw a conclusion (not take), raise a question (not ask), provide evidence (not give), carry out a study (not do), put forward an argument (not offer), cast doubt on, shed light on, lay the groundwork for, build on previous work. These collocations have to be learned as units — and once internalised, they make C1 writing read as confident rather than translated.
This worksheet builds C1 fluency with academic-collocation pairs and their typical contexts.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- Collocation bank with 30+ verb-noun pairs and their typical contexts
- Multiple-choice items targeting collocation accuracy in academic prose
- Gap-fill in academic-paragraph extracts
- Rewriting task: replace verb-noun pairs with their formal academic-collocation equivalents
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes with CAE/CPE essay-prep extension
Common challenges: No rule governs collocations — conduct research and carry out research are both fine; make research is wrong; learners must learn the pairs. L1 transfer is the central trap: in many languages, do research, make a study, take a conclusion all sound natural; in English, they don’t. Hedged collocations: cast doubt on, raise concerns about, lend support to are the high-academic register that C1 examiners reward directly.
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR C1, in advanced classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study — particularly C1 Advanced (CAE) and C2 Proficiency (CPE) candidates and university-bound learners. The band-discriminator in academic writing. Part of the Education & Academic collection — the natural next step is Education and Learning Vocabulary, which returns to the foundational education-system lexis.
