Shell nouns as cohesive devices in published andESL student writingRahime Nur Aktas, Viviana Cortes*Department of EnglishIowa State Universit, !"# Ross $all, Ames IA %""&&, USAShell nouns as cohesive devices in published andESL student writingDis'ussion lea(er) Ce(ra *+ *inalet,his paper anal-es the use of a spe'ial tpe of unspe'i.' noun, 'alle( shell nouns+ ,he stu( anal-es the fre/uen' of some of these shell nouns, the (i0erent le1i'o2grammati'al patterns in whi'h the o''ur, an( the fun'tions asso'iate( with these patterns using a 'orpus23ase( metho(olog an( /uantitative an( /ualitative pro'e(ures+ Abstract,he result of this stu( in(i'ates that stu(ents use( some of these nouns more fre/uentl than pu3lishe( authors an( that the fun'tional patterns in whi'h these nouns were use( varie( 3etween the two groups of writers+&+ Is the use of the sele'te( shell nouns as fre/uent in the written pro(u'tion of pu3lishe( authors as in stu(ents4 pro(u'tion5!+ 6hi'h le1i'o2grammati'al patterns 'an 3e i(enti.e( in 3oth 'orpora for the most fre/uentl use( shell nouns in the pu3lishe( 'orpus5#+ $ow (o these shell nouns fun'tion in (i0erent le1i'o2grammati'al patterns as 'ohesive (evi'es5 Are there an fun'tional (i0eren'es 3etween 3oth groups of writers5Research questions6hat is a le1i'al 'ohesion56hat are shell nouns5Conceptual framework: lexical cohesion and shell nouns7e1i'al 'ohesion in a te1t is the 'hoi'e of wor(s 'an esta3lish te1t 'ontinuit+$alli(a 8&99:;Shell nouns a't like