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Glossary of Writing Terms

Abstract In APA, abstracts are found directly following the title page and are
typically a 150-200 word summary of the following article or paper.

Academic paper Academic papers are, for the most part, designed with two distinct
purposes in mind: to analyze, interpret, explain, or argue about a topic;
and to demonstrate an intellectual understanding of the course or field
for which it is being written.

Active sentence Active sentences are sentences in which the subject performs the
action.

Active voice Active voice entails the use of a subject-verb construction (active
sentences) throughout the majority of a piece of writing.

Adjective Adjectives provide information about, clarify, or describe nouns,

pronouns, or other adjectives.

Adverb Adverbs do very much the same thing as adjectives except they clarify
and describe verbs.

Agenda The underlying motivation for the creation of a text.

Agreement Consistency in time, point of view, plurality or not, and so on within a

text.

Analysis The process of looking closely and critically at a text to determine what
it means, how it presents its ideas, its effectiveness, and so on.

Anecdote Brief stories or slices-of-life that help to make a point

Annotate To underline or highlight important passages in a text and to make

notes in the margins.

APA style The official writing and documentation style of the American
Psychological Association (APA), which is Grantham University’s
official style of documentation and citation for all courses.

Appeal An appeal is an argument that connects to the readers’ needs, such as

achievement, belonging, or survival.

Appendix The Appendix at the end of a text, report, or dissertation, contains

appendices that provided additional information pertaining to the text.

Application paper An application paper focuses on experiences and qualities that suit the
writer for a specific position or program.
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Argument Argument involves a course in logical thinking intended to convince

the reader to accept an idea or to take action.

Argumentative paper An argumentative paper presents an argument about a timely, debatable

topic.

Artifact An artifact is an object made or modified by a human culture.

Attributive phrase A group of words that indicates the source of an idea or quotation.

Attributive tag See attributive phrase.

Audience This term literally refers to the listeners or hearers of a speech,

including the intended listeners/hearers, but is commonly used to refer
to the intended reader or readers for a piece of writing.

Basic listing A brief, somewhat informal itemizing of main points.

Biased words Words that unfairly or disrespectfully depict individuals of groups.

Bibliography Lists of works that cover a particular subject.

Block quotation A long quotation of 40 words or more. Block quotations are formatted
in a way that sets them apart from the rest of the text by tabbing- in
each line, omitting the quotation marks, and leaving the citation outside
of the end punctuation.

Blogs Online journals (shorthand for “Web log”).

Body language Body language is a communication style that involves the use of
physical cues to indicate a person’s level of comfort, interest,
engagement, etc.

Body paragraph A paragraph comprising, in part, the central portion or body of a paper
or other, similarly structured, document, which is focused on
articulating, developing, and supporting a single point of the larger
argument presented by the author with his/her thesis statement in the
introductory paragraph(s).

Boolean operators Words or symbols used when searching research databases that
describe the relationship between various words or phrases in a search.
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Call numbers A set of numbers used by the Library of Congress that specify the
subject area, topic, and authorship or title of a book, magazine, or other
text.

Camera-eye An approach to writing that involves sharing details as though a camera

lens moving across a subject.

Cause-effect paper A paper that examines the conditions or actions that lead to a specific
outcome.

Chronology Order of events as they have occurred in time. We often refer to

descriptions of events in chronological order.

Citation An agreed-upon notation that gives credit to those who informed the
ideas within a text that did not originate with the text’s author.

Classical argument Until recently, the most popular of argumentative styles. This style,
invented in ancient Greece, involves two individuals arguing opposite
sides of an argument in order to convince an unbiased third person.

Clichés Overused words or phrases that, through time, have lost their meaning.
For example, “It’s raining cats and dogs!” or, “It wasn’t just easy; it
was a piece of cake!”

Climax The most exciting moment in a narrative; the moment at which the
person succeeds, fails, or learns something.

Closed question Questions that can be answered by a simple “yes” or “no”.

Clustering A form of brainstorming by freely recording words and phrases around

a nucleus word.

Coherence Strong connection between sentences in a paragraph; achieved through

transition and repetition.

Collections The materials housed within a library.

Colloquialism Colloquialisms are common words which work well in common

conversation, but are not suitable for academic writing. Words like,
“cool,” “sweet,” “y’all,” and “gonna” are colloquialisms. Often, these
can also be whole phrases like, “I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in
a room full of rocking chairs.”

Comma splice A common error in writing made when the writer combines two
independent clauses together with a comma (and nothing else). (i.e.
“There was no way I was going alone, she said she wouldn’t dream of
letting me out of her sight.”).

Concessions Openly recognizing the validity of opposing viewpoints.

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Conflict The obstacles or adversaries confronted by people in narratives; person

vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. self, person vs. technology,
person vs. nature, etc.

Conjunction A word that joins two ideas within a sentence. For example: “I love
pizza, and I love tacos.” The conjunction is “and.” Another example
would be: “I would love some pizza, but it gives me heartburn.

Connotation The suggestion made by a word or group of words—the implied

meaning.

Context The set of circumstances in which a statement is made; the text and
other factors that surround a specific statement and are crucial to
understanding it.

Contraction The shortening or abbreviation of a phrase of two or more words into a

single word for the sake of efficiency and/or for use within informal
writing or speech (e.g. do not may be contracted as don’t). While
contractions are often found in informal modes of writing and speech,
they are not appropriate in academic writing.

Controversies Issues about which there are two or more strongly opposing views or
highly debatable issues.

Conventions The standard rules for spelling, punctuation, mechanics, usage,

grammar, and formatting.

Copyright Legal ownership of the text of a document, entitling the owner of the
copyright to determine if/when/how that text may be reproduced.

Database An electronic repository of information organized by subject and/or

academic or professional discipline (e.g. scholarly articles).

Debatable topic A topic that is not mere fact, but can be argued from at least two
different angles.

Deductive reasoning Reasoning that works from general principles or ideas; through specific
applications, support, and/or examples; to a conclusion.

Defensible position A claim that is debatable, but can be strongly supported by evidence; a
claim that is neither fact nor an unsupportable opinion.

Denotation A word’s literal meaning.

Dialogue The words spoken by people. In writing, dialogue is set apart by

quotation marks.

Directed writing An exploration tactic using one of a set of thinking moves: describe,
compare, associate, analyze, argue, or apply.
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Direct quotation A word-for-word statement or passage from an original source. In

writing, quotations are typically set apart by quotation marks and
always cited. See also block quotation)

Documentation Crediting sources of information, through in-text citations or references

and a list of works cited or references, generally on a page or pages
located at the end of a paper.

DOI A Digital Object Identifier is an alphanumeric code that online content

providers (e.g. databases, scholarly journals) provide as an alternative
to the actual URL of a document so that researchers may cite those
online documents using a static identifier within their bibliographic
citations.

Drafting Writing sentences and paragraphs to create an initial draft of a paper—

should contain a beginning, a middle, and an end.

EBSCO The online research database provided to students and faculty by

Grantham University for the purposes of conducting academic research
necessary for courses of study offered by the University. This database
provides bibliographic citations and, in many cases, full texts of articles
originally published in peer-reviewed, scholarly journals.

Editing Refining a draft in terms of word choice and sentence style and
checking it for conventions.

Ellipsis A set of three periods with one space preceding and following each
period; a punctuation mark that indicates a deletion of material.

Paper The process of trying or testing (from the French verb, paperer,
translated as to try); a written document that explores a particular
question or issue, typically offering a thesis and supporting argument in
response.

Ethos An argumentative strategy designed to build, and then use the

audience’s sense of trust and respect for the arguer to promote an idea.

Etymology The origin of a word.

Extended definition A type of analytical writing that explores the meaning of a specific
term, providing denotation, connotation, and a variety of perspectives
on the term.

Extreme claims Claims that include words (all, best, never, worst) that are overly
positive or negative.
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Facts Statements that can be checked for accuracy through empirical

evidence.

Fair use Rules governing the use of small (not large) portions of a text for non-
commercial purposes.

Fake writing voice A writing voice that sounds overly academic, bland, or unnatural.

Feasible Do-able; reasonable—given time, budgets, resources, and

consequences.

Field research An on-site scientific study conducted for the purpose of gathering raw
data.

First draft The initial writing in which the writing connects facts and details about
the topic.

First person A confessional or conversational style of writing that connects the

thoughts of the writer directly to the reader through the use of the
pronouns: I, me, we, us and so on. Good for some papers, but in
general, is not considered appropriate for academic writing. First
person is frowned upon when writing APA Style research papers.

Flush The justification of the text in a paper (meaning to which margin of the
page the text lines up). In APA, with the exception of page numbers,
the title of the paper, the title-block, certain level titles, block
quotations, the abstract title, and the References page title-- all text
should be justified flush left. Page numbers are placed flush right, and
all of the other exceptions are center justified.

Focus The specific part of the subject to be covered in a piece of writing.

Focused free-writing A form of free writing that is approached from a specific angle or as a
quick draft of a paper.

Forecasting Also known as foreshadowing, this is a writing technique that shows a

preview of what the reader can expect throughout the rest of a
document. In academic writing, forecasting usually happens within the
thesis statement or within the transitions between paragraphs or
sections.

Foreshadowing (see forecasting)

Form The type of writing; for example, report, letter, proposal, editorial,
paper, story, or poem.

Formal English Carefully worded language suitable for most academic writing.

Formatting The visual organization of a document, including, but not limited to,
margins, font, font size, font color, textual justification, line spacing,
etc.
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Formulaic writing Writing that stiffly adheres to a prescribed format and, because of that,
fails to make an impact.

Forwarding The process of interacting with an idea through writing. When we are
forwarding, we are changing the idea, extending it, reshaping it, and
filtering it through our consciousness in order to send the new, altered
version out into the world.

Fragment An incomplete sentence (missing a verb or a subject).

Free-writing A form of non-stop writing used during the early stages of the writing
process to collect thoughts and ideas.

Glossary A list of important words and terms.

Graphic organizer A chart or diagram used to arrange the main points and essential details
of a paper.

Hanging indent A hanging indent is the indention of the first line of a paragraph . Using
the tab-key is generally the easiest way to create a hanging indent, but
one can always use 12 spaces on the space bar.

Hyperlinks Specially formatted text that enables readers to click to another spot on
the Internet.

Implications Natural results, direct and indirect, whether good or bad.

Inductive reasoning Reasoning that works from particular details toward general
conclusions.

In-text citation Like citation, an in-text citation is an agreed-upon notation that gives
credit to those who informed the ideas within a text that did not
originate with the text’s author. In APA in-text citations are required in
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brief form within the body of the text, and are fully-cited on the
References page(s).

Informal English Language characterized by a more relaxed, personal tone suitable for
personal writing.

Intensity A writer’s level of concern for the topic as indicated by the writing
voice.

Jargon Technical terms not familiar to the general reader.

Journal A notebook used regularly for personal writing.

Journals Publications providing specialized scholarly information for a narrowly

focused audient. Journals may be published monthly, bi-monthly,
quarterly, etc. Most journals are now also digitized. Many can be found
in Grantham library’s free database. Some online journals require a
subscription fee to access.

Level of language The level of language a writer uses—informal, semi-formal, or formal.

Line diagram A graphic organizer used to arrange ideas for expository writing.

Logical fallacies Logical fallacies are false arguments based on fuzzy, dishonest, or
incomplete thinking.

Logos An argumentative strategy designed to appeal to an audience’s logic.

Loose sentence A sentence that provides a base clause near the beginning, followed by
explanatory phrases and clauses.

Main claim A debatable statement, the thesis or key point in an argument.

Medium The way that writing is delivered; for example, in a printed publication
or online.

Metaphor A comparison that equates two dissimilar things without using like or
as; saying that one thing is another.
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Mnemonics Memory techniques in which new ideas are associated with more
recognizable or memorable words, images, or ideas.

Modifiers Words that limit or describe other words or groups of words; adjectives
or adverbs.

Nominal A noun form of a verb such as description, instructions, confirmation.

Noun A part of speech that stands for a person, place, thing, or idea.

Nucleus word The central theme in a cluster, connecting all other ideas.

Observation Noting information received in person through the senses.

Omit To leave out.

Open-ended question A question that requires an elaborate answer.

Opinions Personally held attitudes or beliefs.

Options Choices provided with an assignment.

Order of importance A pattern of organization often used in persuasive writing in which the
writer begins or ends with the most convincing argument.

Order of location Organizing details according to their position; progressing from near to
far, inside to outside, and so on.

Organizing pattern The way that details are arranged in writing; for example, chronological
order or cause/effect order.

Original document A record that relates directly to an event, issue, object, or a

phenomenon.

Orphan A single line of a new paragraph at the bottom of a page.

Overall design The pattern the writing takes to move deas along—time order,
compare-contrast, and so on.

OWLs Online writing labs where individuals can get answers to their writing
questions.
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Page design The elements (typography, spacing, graphics) that create the look of a
paper; readability is the focus of design for academic writing.

Paper mill A typically commercial organization, usually represented online

through a web site, offering academic-style papers or papers, usually
for a fee, to would-be plagiarizers.

Parallelism Repeating phrases or sentence structures to show the relationship

between ideas.

Paraphrase To discuss an entire document in one’s own words.

Passive sentence Sentences in which the subject is acted upon.

Passive voice A subject-verb construction in which the subject is acted upon, not
performing the action as it would be in the active voice.

Pathos An argumentative strategy designed to appeal to an audience’s

emotions.

PDF Portable document file; a file form that preserves a document according
to its exact appearance and is readable through Adobe software.

Periodicals Publications (journals, magazines, newsletters) or broadcasts produced

at regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly).

Personal narrative Writing about a memorable experience; often includes personal

reflection and thoughts.

Pivotal points Moments in which a significant change occurs; literally a point in

which a person changes direction.

Plagiarism The act of presenting someone else’s work as one’s own, whether
intentionally or unintentionally.

Planning The thinking and organizing that go into establishing a direction and
structure for writing.

Platitudes Stale or unoriginal thoughts.

Point of view The perspective from which the writer approaches the writing,
including first-person, second-person, or third-person point of view.

Portfolio A collection of selected work by a group or author.

Preposition A word that shows a where/when relationship with the other words in
the sentence or clause. Prepositions include words such as up, in,
through, over, by, from, and so on.

Primary sources Original sources that provide first-hand information about a

subject.
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Pronoun A word that replaces a noun in a sentence to help alleviate

redundancy. Pronouns include words such as he, she, they, we, it, them,
his, her, and so on.

Proofread The act of checking a document for errors before submitting it.

Public domain Materials provided by the government provided as a part of the “copy
left” movement, or, generally speaking, documents over seventy-five
years old.

Publish The act of sharing a completed work with another.

Purpose The goal of a piece of writing; for example, to inform, to convince, to

analyze, to persuade.

Qualifiers Words or phrases that limit or refine a claim, making it more

reasonable.

Quotation A word-for-word statement or passage from an original source. In

writing, quotations are always set apart and cited.

Rapport Personal connection, trust, and teamwork.

Rebuttal A tactful argument aimed at weakening the opposing point of view.

Redirect To restate the main claim or argument.

Redundancy Words used together that mean nearly the same thing. Also, the
repetitive use of a word or phrase when that word or phrase could be
replaced with another.

Redundancy Words used together that mean nearly the same thing. Also, the
repetitive use of a word or phrase when that word or phrase could be
replaced with another.

References Also known as sources, references are made up of information that has
been gathered from external works in order to provide evidence toward
a claims or to draw associations between authors within a paper.
References can be journal articles, books, information on websites,
magazines, videos, interviews or other documents. Most college
writing uses sources, but these references are generally limited to
specific forms and types by the course and/or instructor. APA insists
that references be scholarly in nature and generally asks that they be
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peer reviewed. References should always be cited both in the body of

text and in the References page .

Reference listing A citation of a document that has been quoted, paraphrased, or

summarized within a paper and appears in the References page.

References page In APA, the References page is the last page of a paper. This page
includes an alphabetical listing of all the sources/references quoted,
summarized, and/or paraphrased within the paper. Source/reference
listings are expected to follow the APA citation style appropriate for
the particular type of source they refer to. Each listing is treated as an
individual, but reversed paragraph, with, the first line flush with the left
margin of the paper, and with each additional line of the
source/reference listing tabbed-in.

Refute To prove an idea or argument false, illogical, or undesirable.

Repetition Repeating words or synonyms where necessary to remind the reader of

what has already been said.

Research paper A fairly long paper, complete with a thesis statement, supporting
evidence, integrated resources, and careful documentation.

Restrictions Limitations of choice within an assignment.

Résumé A brief document that outlines a person’s employment objectives and

highlights the person’s job skills, experience, and education.

Revising Improving and/or redirecting a draft through large-scale changes such

as adding, deleting, rearranging, and reworking.

Rhetoric The art of using language effectively.

Running head Running heads (aka running titles) are brief versions of the title that
appear in the top, left of each page, and are presented in all capital
letters. Running heads should be no more than 50 characters in length,
and no more than five words long. Due to their brevity, running heads
are often abbreviated versions of the title of the paper. On the title
page, the words Running head: precede the title (not in italics or in all
capital letters). The remaining pages of the paper include only the
abbreviated title without the additional wording.

Search engine An online research tool (e.g. Google, Yahoo) through which
researchers may search the internet for webpages, documents, etc.

Secondary source Sources that are at least once removed from the original source; sources
that provide second-hand information.

Second person The perspective or voice of direct address, in which the author or
speaker addresses the reader or hearer using a second-person pronoun
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(i.e. you), as if in conversation. Second person is useful when giving

individual direction or in some technical writing. But, due to its casual,
familiar, and often accusatory tone, it is highly discouraged in
academic writing.

Sensory details Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, temperatures and other details
connected to the five senses—showing rather than telling about the
subject.

Sentence combining The act of combining ideas in sentences to show relationships and to
make connections.

Sentence expanding The act of extending basic ideas with different types of phrases and
clauses.

Sentence outline A more formal method of arrangement in which a writer states each
main point and essential detail as a complete sentence.

Sentence variety The varying of beginnings, lengths, and types of sentences within a
paper in order to make the writing interesting to the reader.

Sexist language Language that, unintentionally or not, accounts for only one gender
despite being directed toward a mixed audience.

Showcase portfolio A collection of appropriate, finished pieces of writing.

Slang Words considered to lie outside of the standard English language

because they are faddish, familiar to a few people, and may be
insulting.

Slanted question Questions that presuppose a specific answer.

Sources Also known as a references, sources are made up of information that

has been consulted to provide evidence within a paper. Sources can be
journal articles, books, information on websites, magazines, videos,
interviews or other documents. Most college writing uses sources, but
these sources are generally limited to specific forms and types by the
course and/or instructor. APA insists that sources be scholarly in
nature and generally asks that they be peer reviewed. Sources should
always be cited both in the body of text and in the References page.

Spatial organization A pattern of organization in which the writer logically orders

descriptive details from far to near, left to right, top to bottom, and so
on. Also see camera-eye.

Style The variety, originality, and clarity of a piece of writing.

Subject The general area covered by a piece of writing.

Summary Condensed representation, in one’s own words rather than through

quotation, of the main points of a passage. Summary is designed to
extract the meaning of a piece of work in a form that essentializes the
original author’s words.

Surface change The edited (corrected) words, phrases, and sentences in a piece of
writing.
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Surface error A problem in word choice, grammar, mechanics, usage, etc. that do
little to harm the transference of meaning, but appear untidy and
unprofessional.

T
Tab A series of 12 spaces placed at the beginning of a paragraph. Can more
easily be accomplished by striking the “Tab” key.

Tactful Being sensitive to the feelings of others; avoiding unnecessary offense.

Taxonomy A system of classification of items—plants, animals, ideas, movements,

etc.

Tertiary source Sources that provide third-hand information, such as wikis; though
these sources are a good place to begin to formulate ideas, using them
as evidence to drive an academic paper is highly discouraged at the
college-level.

Thesis Statement A sentence or group of sentences that sum up the central idea of a piece
of writing; thesis statements serve as a map to the body of a paper.

Third person The perspective or voice of indirect observation, in which the author or
speaker uses third person pronouns (e.g. he, she, they) to describe the
actions and interactions of persons with things and in places at which
the author or speaker is/was not present. In fiction, this is the voice of
the semi-omniscient or omniscient narrator.

Thought details Impressions, emotions, predictions, and reflections; details that reveal
perceptions rather than sensations.

Title page The page on which, in the APA style, the title of the paper, the name of
the author(s), and the name of the organization are identified. Title
pages are the first page of an APA style paper.

Title block The identifying information found on the title page of an APA style
paper. Title blocks are center-justified, and include, in descending
order, the title of the paper, the name of its author, and the organization
the paper is being written for (for papers written in college, this
organization is almost always the name of the school).

Tone The overall feeling or effect created by a writer’s thoughts and his or
her choice of words.

Topic outline A less formal method of arrangement in which the writer states each
main point and essential detail as a word of a phrase.

Transition Words or phrases that help tie ideas together.

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Uninspiring draft A draft in which the writer fails to connect with his or her readers or
makes a lasting impression.

Unity Oneness achieved in a paragraph through a strong focus on a single,

central idea.

Verb An action word.

Vivid verb Specific action verbs, such as lunge, trudge, etc. that help to create
clear images.

Voice The tone of the writing, often affected by the personality of the writer.

Widow A single word of a short line carried over to the top of the next page.

Working thesis A preliminary answer to a main research question; the focus of one’s
research.

Worn-out topic A paper that is dull or unoriginal because the topic has been
overworked. Abortion, Legalizing Marijuana, Global Warming, and
Lowering the Drinking Age are all examples of worn-out topics.

Writing portfolio A selected group of writings by a single author.

Writing process The steps that a writer follows to develop a thoughtful and thorough
piece of writing.

© Grantham University 2012