Glossary of Terms

Analogy: A method for making an argument by using a familiar subject to help explain another less familiar subject through comparison.

Analysis: Looking beyond the surface of an object, event, idea, or concept in pursuit of deeper meaning.

Anecdote: An interesting short narrative or story used to explain or illustrate ideas and concepts.

Antecedent: The word a pronoun replaces.

Apostrophe: A form of punctuation that shows possession of a noun and shows the omission of letters.

Argumentation: A process of reasoning that asserts the logical soundness of a debatable position, belief, or conclusion. Argumentation essays take a clearly defined stand on a debatable topic and support that stance through evidence.

Bookending: Starting and ending an essay with a common element, such as a story, question and answer, or quote.

Category: The general areas of interest that are used to organize points.

Causal Analysis: A process of reasoning that analyzes why something happens. Causal or cause and effect essays examine causes, describe effects, or do both.

Causal Chain: The connections between causes and effects that are developed in an essay or oral argument.

Causes: The reasons why effects or results occur.

Claim: A statement of position. A well-written thesis statement makes an assertion about the subject.

Classification: The process of sorting individual items into categories in order to make sense of seemingly random ideas.

Cliché: A phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused so much that it has lost its originality and impact.

Comma: A form of punctuation that breaks up long sentences into smaller chunks.

Comma Splice: A sentence in which a comma incorrectly divides the sentence.

Comparison: Explaining how two subjects are alike. This term can also be used as a shorter way to mean both comparison and contrast.

Complex Sentence: A sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Compound Sentence: A sentence with multiple independent clauses but no dependent clauses.

Conclusion: The final paragraph of an essay; it is a recap of what was discussed in the essay. It should not just be a summary of what occurred in the essay; it should leave the audience on a strong and satisfying note by talking about the implications of what has been discussed or why the topic is important from a broader perspective.

Concrete Language: Terms used to describe things that exist in the physical world.

Contestable: An element of controversy. Thesis statements should be contestable, meaning a writer should consider whether someone would argue against the thesis.

Contraction: A word in which one or more letters have been omitted and an apostrophe put in its place.

Contrast: Explaining how two subjects are not alike.

Controlling Statement: An element of a paper that provides a focus and direction. The thesis serves as a controlling statement for the entire essay.

Critical Thinking: Digging deeply for meaningful or original ideas.

Dangling Modifier: Words that are intended to describe others, but they are placed within the sentence poorly, and, therefore, do not modify anything.

Definition: What a term means and how it differs from other terms in its class.

Dependent Clause: A group of words that contains a subject and a verb but does not express a complete thought.

Descriptive Language: Words used to describe the subject.

Details: Specific information, facts, and characteristics of a situation, object, or concept.

Effects: The results or consequences that stem from causes.

Essay: A brief, nonfiction form of writing that tries to make a point in an interesting, engaging way.

Evaluative Stance: An element of the thesis that shows the reader’s perspective on the topic.

Example: Something that can be a model or represent the whole. It is a particular instance of something.

Exemplification: Employing one or more examples in order to illustrate or explain a general point or concept.

Freewriting: Writing anything and everything that comes to mind without stopping for a particular period of time.

Focused Freewriting: Freewriting on a particular topic or group of topic options or freewriting in response to a prompt.

Fragment: An incomplete sentence because it lacks a main clause.

Generalization: A broad perception or idea applied to an entire group usually based on a fraction of the group.

Gerund: Words that end in –ing.

Grammar: The whole system and structure of the English language. It includes the rules and expectations of what we say and how we say it.

Hook: An interesting fact, quotation, fascinating paradox, question, or other item designed to grab the audience’s attention and entice the audience to read the essay.

Hypothetical: A scenario or proposed situation or incident used to illustrate or exemplify a point or hypothesis.

Immediate Cause: The reason or stimulus occurring closest in time to an effect.

Immediate Effect: The result or consequence occurring closest in time to a cause.

Indefinite Pronoun: Words that refer to a nonspecific noun.

Infinitive: Words that appear as "to + verb," such as to go.

Independent Clause: A complete sentence that expresses a complete thought that can stand on its own.

Introduction: The first paragraph of the essay. It contains a hook and a thesis statement, which is the roadmap for the entire essay. It introduces the content of the essay and leads the audience into the body of the essay.

Looped Freewriting: The process of freewriting on topics discovered during a previous freewriting session.

Metaphor: A figure of speech that compares two items or concepts in a poetic style that implies the comparison is not literal.

Misplaced Modifier: A modifier for which the subject is unclear because it was placed poorly within the sentence.

Modifier: A word or phrase that adds details or support to other words in a sentence.

Narrative: Narrative essays tell a story by presenting events in an orderly, logical sequence.

Noun: Words that represent a person, place, thing, or idea.

Parallel Construction: A number of ideas expressed in a sentence using the same form, i.e., they are nouns or adjectives.

Peer Review: Working with at least one partner from a writer's writing community during the revision process to find out how someone other than the writer interprets the material.

Persuasion: A symbolic process in which communicators try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behavior regarding an issue or situation through the transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free choice.

Point: The very specific quality that is alike or different about subjects.

Preposition: Words that add interest to a sentence and describe a noun’s relationship with other words.

Prepositional Phrase: A series of words that start with a preposition and end with a noun or pronoun; such phrases act as adverbs or adjectives.

Primary Cause: The most important or significant reason why something happens.

Primary Effect: The most important or significant result of a cause.

Pronoun: Words that replace nouns.

Proofreading: The process of examining a piece of writing to find and correct errors of grammar, punctuation, spelling, word choice, word order, and point of view.

Punctuation: The marks used in writing to separate parts or all of a sentence.

Remote Cause: The reason or stimulus furthest removed in time from an effect.

Remote Effect: The result or consequence furthest removed in time from a cause.

Resonance: A quality of writing that communicates universal thoughts and feelings through the use of particular settings, events, and characters.

Run-on Sentence: A sentence that is missing necessary punctuation that causes confusion and frustration for the reader.

Scope: The depth of the topic being covered.

Signal Phrase: Words, including, such as, for example, for instance, such as, illustrated by, like, in particular, and in fact, that signal to the reader that additional, specific details follow.

Simile: A kind of metaphor that uses either the word like or as to show comparison.

Simple Sentence: Sentences with one independent clause and no dependent clauses.

Slang: An informal form of language often used in speech.

Straw Man: Comparing one subject to another subject that is obviously much worse in order to argue that the first is better.

Subject: 1. One of the items or concepts that will be compared. There must be at least two subjects for a comparison and contrast essay. 2. A person, place, or thing that is doing or being something.

Subordinating Conjunction: A joiner word that introduces a dependent clause and joins it to a main clause.

Summary: Briefly addressing the surface, some superficial aspect, plain facts of a story, idea, or concept. Summaries give a general overview but stop short of looking for meaning. Summaries generally report facts and recount details but do not look to evaluate.

Support: The part of a paragraph where writers explain and prove their main points.

Synthesis: To combine ideas from several texts into one by using the important points, written in your own words in a shortened version.

Tense Shift: Occurs when a writer changes verb tense in a sentence or a paragraph. This shift is usually from past to present tense, or vice versa. Some are appropriate, but most are unnecessary and confuse readers.

Thesis: A thesis is a statement that briefly names the main talking points found within the essay.

Tone: A writer's style, character, bias, or attitude.

Topic Sentence: The first sentence of a paragraph that tells readers what to expect from the paragraph.

Transition: The process of changing from one state or condition to another. When applied to writing, a transition bridges the gap from one topic to another in a smooth, engaging manner.

Unloose: To untie or release.

Venn Diagram: A chart created by John Venn to help explain in a visual way how two or more subjects can be alike and different.

Verb: Any action word.

Vivid Imagery: Descriptive language used to demonstrate the physical attributes of something.