Glossary

Nouns that refer to concepts (“truth,” “beauty”) rather than specific, concrete things (“car”).

Correctness. An accurate statement is factual and precise.

Correctness. An accurate statement is factual and precise.

People who champion and fight for a cause, typically those engaged in fighting for justice and equity.

Speeches, or one-to-many public communications.

Multiple legitimate but clashing interpretations are possible. Meaning is ambiguous if a passage can be understood in different, contradictory ways.

A list of things you want to do before you die.

Personal magnetism, a quality that attracts others to you.

Argument or evaluation based on evidence and a process of reasoning. The main claim of an essay is its thesis.

Collaborative and cooperative in spirit.

Communicating your full meaning in the fewest possible words.

A circumstance where someone communicating on a topic, promoting an idea, or occupying a position of authority stands to gain personally from others going along with their position.

Productively, with good will and the intention to cooperate. When you disagree constructively, you show respect for and understanding of whomever you’re disagreeing with.

The background situation or larger ground within which something is situated.

The background situation or larger ground within which something is situated.

The trustworthiness of a source. If a source is credible, we have reason to believe that it’s factually accurate and reliable.

The trustworthiness of a source. If a source is credible, we have reason to believe that it’s factually accurate and reliable.

Discerning;, practising careful reasoning and judgment.

Discerning; practising careful reasoning and judgment.

Judge or evaluate a source.

An essay that analyzes (breaks down) a text, event, or some other source, and evaluates it. A critique is not necessarily negative, but it does judge the source, whether positively or negatively.

A widely networked, collaborative, democratic form of content creation where many people contribute.

An online collection of materials.

Break down, question, or interpret through a rigorous process of critical examination.

A judgment on an issue or argument, made after consideration of evidence and opposing viewpoints.

Data in support of a position or argument. Can take the form of testimony, eyewitness account, analogy, statistics or quantitative data, example, and more.

Short passages from a larger text.

A rhetorical, non-literal use of language, such as metaphor or simile.

The “I” point of view (as opposed to second person, “you,” or third person, “she/ he/ it”).

The basic building blocks of communication, such as being able to interpret literal meaning and understand simple terms and basic language rules.

In grammar, a fragment is a word or group of words that cannot stand on its own grammatically.

Another term for contextualizing, i.e., understanding the background of the source in question.

The accepted rules for how parts of a language fit together. The system of a language taken as a whole.

Marked with a hashtag, the “#” symbol used in social media to group similarly themed messages together.

Allowing for the possibility of being wrong. You “hedge” your argument by acknowledging the possible legitimacy of an opposing view. See also qualification.

A system of beliefs, values, and ideas that individuals and groups are deeply committed to.

Conveyed indirectly, not stated directly.

Curious, questioning, wanting to discover more.

means to loop repeatedly through the design process, gradually refining the product through feedback.

Repetition of a process, looping through a sequence of actions again and again.

Terms specific to a discipline, profession, or other group. Often difficult for outsiders to understand.

A group of words that can stand alone as a complete sentence, independent of any other group of words. It has at a minimum a grammatical subject and finite verb.

Channel or technology for communicating ideas, such as the medium of television, book publishing, online content, and so on.

Words or groups of words that modify our understanding of a noun. For example, in the phrase “The red car,” “red” is an adjective modifying the noun “car.”

The method by which a story is told.

A subtle meaning, or meaning that is present but not immediately obvious until closer inspection.

Expressing someone else’s idea in your own words, capturing the same meaning in about the same length, but with new words.

Expressing someone else’s idea in your own words, capturing the same meaning in about the same length, but with new words.

A comparison where you describe something non-living as if it is living. “The wind roared” compares the wind to a wild animal.

How high or low you speak relative to your range.

Division into extremely different views by groups or parts of the population.

A group of words starting with a preposition (“about,” “at,” “for,” “in,” “on,” etc.) and a noun or group of words acting as a noun.

The accepted rules for how parts of a language fit together. The system of a language taken as a whole.

A rough draft meant for getting feedback as part of the writing process (or some other process of creation).

A restriction or limitation on the meaning of a statement. When you qualify your argument, you acknowledge limits or opposing viewpoints.

A restriction or limitation on the meaning of a statement. When you qualify your argument, you acknowledge limits or opposing viewpoints.

A restriction or limitation on the meaning of a statement. When you qualify your argument, you acknowledge limits or opposing viewpoints.

Logical; characterized by cognition and critical thinking as distinct from a more emotional approach.

Logical thought process leading to a conclusion in an argument.

Statements that explain why someone holds a particular opinion or believes a particular claim to be true.

Broadly speaking, related to use of language, especially (but not exclusively) for persuasion.

Basic types of writing or communication, characterized by their purpose and the structural or rhetorical conventions used to achieve that purpose. Examples of rhetorical modes are persuasion, classification, compare and contrast, and cause and effect.

Research and publications by professional academic scholars.

The focus or “field of vision” of a research project. The smaller the scope, the more the writer goes into detail about a smaller area of study.

Informal language, typically limited to and understood by a particular group, the “insiders” who know that language.

Nonverbal forms of communication such as use of the body, facial expressions, and personal space to express meaning.

Expectations or standards for behaviour in society at large.

Labelling groups by some characteristic, usually in a prejudiced and oversimplified fashion.

A neutral overview of a text in highly condensed form; the main lines of an argument.

Two different words having the same meaning.

Two different words having the same meaning.

Customize a message with a specific audience in mind.

The language that characterizes texting, such as use of acronyms, short forms, sentence fragments, and so on.

Central argument or main idea of an essay.

Impartial, nonprejudiced, fair. See bias.