Text Inspector is the web-based language analysis tool created by renowned Professor of Applied Linguistics, Stephen Bax.

By using our powerful online tool, ESOL students can improve their knowledge of English, ESL teachers are able to develop more effective English teaching materials, linguists and universities can benefit from more accurate research tools and even those who are just curious about English can find out how our beautiful language works.

Over the years, we’ve won multiple awards for our contribution to language innovation, we boast over 120,000 current users, and our tool is used by students, teachers, linguists, universities and leading publishers from over 100 countries across the world!

This blog is our way of providing support and information to our users and contributing to the global conversation about language. We hope you enjoy reading our posts. 

The Text Inspector Story

Almost two decades years ago, linguistics expert Professor Stephen Bax had a dream.

His lifelong passion for language had taken him across the world as a student, teacher, lecturer and professor at places like Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Bedfordshire and the Open University. But he felt that this wasn’t enough.

He wanted to make a bigger difference to those who were learning, studying and teaching the English language and further develop our understanding of second language acquisition.

After a great deal of hard work, he came up with a detailed design and prototype for a language tool which he believed could help him achieve these incredible goals. With the help of the talented web design team, Versantus, he soon put his ideas into action and created the globally-recognised language tool, Text Inspector.

Since these early days, the Text Inspector tool has undergone significant tweaking and improvements to provide the best user experience and results possible, although Professor Bax’s research into lexis in texts still underpins the metrics used on the site today.

The site has gone on to win several awards over the years including the 2014 TESOL Distinguished Researcher Award and the British Council ELTONS awards for Digital Innovation in 2017.

What Now?

Although Professor Stephen Bax passed away suddenly in November 2017, the Text Inspector tool continues to go from strength to strength.

After his death, his two sons, Andrew and Michael Bax took the reins and now they run Text Inspector alongside a team of volunteers and professional help from The Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment (CRELLA).

Why Are We Starting the Blog?

Who is the Text Inspector blog for?

Share and Discuss

What we post on the Text Inspector blog will be rooted in solid linguistic research carried out by experts. However, as with many other things in life, there are always different opinions and schools of thought which help push us towards greater knowledge.

With that in mind, we encourage you to share these blog posts and respond, make suggestions and even disagree with our approach as long as you are polite and respectful at all times.

Thank you reading, visiting and being part of the Text Inspector blog.

If you need technical support or have any questions about subscriptions, please contact us here.

Yours Sincerely,

Andrew & Michael Bax

Would you be willing to be interviewed for the blog? Or perhaps you’d like to guest post? Let’s have a chat. Contact us here.