The Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing (CMSW) is an electronic corpus of written and printed texts from the period 1700-1945, complementing the Helsinki Corpus of Older Scots (1450-1700) and the Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech (1945-present day). CMSW contains over 350 documents, containing approximately 5.5 million words of text overall.

CMSW’s documents range from printed novels, to written correspondence, to newspaper and magazine articles, to legal material such as wills and sasines. Our documents have been sourced from partners such as the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, the National Library of Scotland, and University of Glasgow Archive Services.

CMSW was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), which funds postgraduate training and research in the arts and humanities, from archaeology and English literature to design and dance. The quality and range of research supported not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.