Academic English Generator  
 

 

a correspondence / to correspond / corresponding

 

A correspondence is a link between two things. This link may be because they match, because there’s a statistical relationship between them or because one of them leads to the other. It’s used a lot to compare or report on research. Correspondence can have another meaning – especially in business – which is a more formal way of saying letters and emails between people. So when someone returns to work they have to catch up with their correspondence.

Her research found little correspondence between investment and profitability.

The Greeks were the first to realise that the intervals between musical notes corresponded to mathematical ratios.

 

more example sentences        questions for personal practice        unit 3

Home ] Up ]

to correlate / to be correlated / a correlation

If two things correlate (or: are correlated), it means that there's a statistical connection between them. So, if the correlation is positive, it means when one thing goes up, the other goes up too. So, for instance, you might find that there's a positive correlation between self-confidence and success at university. If the correlation is negative, it means that when one thing goes up, the other thing goes down. So, perhaps you'll find a negative correlation between the amount of time spent watching TV and success at university.  The most common statistical calculations used to show correlation are Pearson's rho and Spearman's rho (you'll learn about these when you study research methods). But you always have to be careful not to confuse correlation with cause and effect. Just because, for instance, there's a correlation between self-confidence and success at university, this doesn't mean self-confidence causes success. It could be that success causes people to be confident or that both self-confidence and success have a common cause - for instance, family background.

 

The study found that the two sets of scores were positively correlated.

Her research found a strong

 

more example sentences        questions for personal practice        unit 6

Home ] Up ]

 

 

 

Materials by Martin McMorrow, Massey University Auckland.