Writing Glossary

A sentence construction where the subject performs the action expressed by the verb.

The process of examining and interpreting evidence to support your argument.

A citation style guide by the American Psychological Association for social sciences papers.

A type of essay that presents a clear position on a topic and supports it with evidence and reasoning.

The main paragraphs of an essay that develop and support the thesis with evidence and analysis.

A creative process for generating ideas and topics before beginning to write.

A reference to a source of information used in academic writing to give credit to original authors.

A grammatical error where two independent clauses are incorrectly joined with only a comma.

The final paragraph that restates the thesis, summarizes key points, and provides closure.

An opposing viewpoint that challenges your thesis, addressed to strengthen your argument.

Facts, statistics, examples, or expert opinions used to support claims in an essay.

An engaging opening sentence or phrase designed to capture the reader's attention.

The opening paragraph that provides background, engages the reader, and presents the thesis.

A citation style guide published by the Modern Language Association for humanities papers.

A structured plan that organizes your main points and supporting details before writing.

Using the same grammatical form for similar elements in a sentence or series.

Restating someone else's ideas in your own words while maintaining the original meaning.

A sentence construction where the subject receives the action expressed by the verb.

The process of having classmates or colleagues evaluate and provide feedback on your writing.

The practice of using someone else's work or ideas without proper attribution.

The final step of checking for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

The exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks and properly attributed.

A focused question that guides your research and helps develop your thesis statement.

The process of reviewing and improving content, organization, and clarity of a draft.

A sentence that contains multiple independent clauses without proper punctuation or conjunctions.

The grammatical rule that subjects and verbs must agree in number (singular or plural).

A concise summary of the main point or claim of an essay, usually appearing in the introduction.

The first sentence of a paragraph that introduces the main idea and connects to the thesis.

Words or phrases that connect ideas and create smooth flow between sentences and paragraphs.

A list of all sources referenced in an essay, formatted according to a specific style guide.