Author's Purpose: The author's intent either to inform or teach someone about something, to entertain people, or to persuade or convince their audience to do or not do something.
Cause and Effect: Cause statements stem from actions and events, and effects are what happen as a result of the action or event.
Context clues: Information from the reading that identifies a word or group of words.
Dialogue: conversation between people in a literary work
Differentiate: Distinguish, tell apart and recognize differences between two or more items.
Figurative Language: Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.
Generalization: A conclusion, drawn from specific information, that is used to make a broad statement about a topic or person.
Inference: understandings gained by "reading between the lines"
Main Idea: The main idea is the author's central thought; the topic sentence of a paragraph.
Mood: The emotion created in the reader; the atmosphere in a situation
Plot: The sequence in which the author arranges events in a story. The structure often includes the rising action, the climax, the falling action and the resolution.
Point of view: the position or outlook of the author
Problem/Solution: An organizational structure in nonfiction texts, where the author typically presents a problem and possible solutions to it.
Sequence: An organizational structure in nonfiction texts, where the author typically shows an order of events in time order OR by using time order words (first, second, next, then).
Theme: a major idea broad enough to cover the entire scope of a literary work.
Tone: The attitude of the author toward the audience and characters (e.g., serious or humorous).
Connotation: The range of associations that a word or phrase suggests in addition to its dictionary meaning (e.g., slender/thin/scrawny).
Denotation: The direct or dictionary meaning of a word.
Analyze: To break something down and assess all parts
Trace: List in sequence
Evaluate: Judge; To determine the value, worth, or importance of something after careful consideration
Formulate: to develop and explain all the details of an idea, thought, or conclusion
Describe: Tell all about it
Support: Back up with details; to uphold or defend as valid or right
Evidence: Support used in written prompts which is taken either from the text (for TDAs) or is formulated from the mind of the student (Regular essays)
Explain: Tell why or how
Summarize: Brief restatement of important points of a writing or oral statement
Compare: Coming up with ways things are alike
Contrast: Coming up with ways things are different
Predict: Tell what will happen next
Develop: Expand upon; to grow or change and become more advanced
Synthesize: Combine to make new; combine a number of things into a coherent whole
Characterize: Tell about the qualities of
Interpret: Explain your understanding of
Determine: to decide the truth or validity of something (facts, statistics, or claims)
Defend: Write in support of
Objective tone: a way of presenting information that is not emotional or prejudicial
Apply: To connect something you know or can do to another situation
Appropriate: right or correct in a particular situation or context
Argument: an idea supported by evidence or reasoning
Assess: to make a judgment about
Audience: those who receive information or a message
Cite: to mention or quote as an example to support an idea, claim, or opinion
Claim: to state a position that may go against the positions of others
Clarify: to make something easier to understand
Closure: the act of bringing something to an end or reaching a conclusion
Compose: to create and/or write
Conventions: generally accepted practices, such as in grammar or language mechanics
Counterclaim: a claim that goes against a previous claim
Credible: reasonable to trust or believe
Critique: to express your opinion about the good and bad parts of something
Define: to explain the meaning of something
Delineate: to clearly show or describe
Design: The way in which something is planned and made
Detail: a fact or piece of information about something
e.g.: a Latin abbreviation that means "for example"
Essay: a formal and focused piece of writing--usually multi-paragraph
Fact: True and provable piece of information
Formal Style: impersonal, objective, precise use of language
Infer: to guess that something is true because of the information you have
Integrate: to combine one thing with another to make a whole
Justify: to prove or show something to be just, right, or reasonable
Logical: using reason
Organization: The appropriate arrangement of parts in an orderly and efficient way
Paraphrase: to reword something written or spoken by someone else
Passage: a portion or section of a written work; a paragraph, verse, etc.
Phrase: a brief statement, comment, or remark either verbal or written
Plagiarize: unauthorized use of another's words
Precise: definite or exact
Rank: relative position or standing
Reason: basis of argument; supporting evidence
Relevant: connected to the subject
Source: where the information comes from, can be written, oral, audio, video, etc.
Specific: precise or particular
Sufficient: enough
Text features: elements that help the reader make sense of the text
Text structure: how text or a passage is organized
Transform: to change something from one state to another