English glossary

Adaptation

A version of a text remade in another medium.

A novel filmed.

Affordance

What a medium makes easy or hard to communicate.

Video makes emotion easy and caveats hard.

Agency

Clear responsibility for an action in a sentence.

Active voice usually shows agency.

Agent

The person or thing performing the action.

by the council

Allusion

An indirect reference to another text, person or event.

Naming a character Antigone.

Ambiguity

A deliberate openness to more than one reading.

An ending that refuses to confirm a death.

Anaphora

Repeating the same opening words across clauses.

without teachers, without funding, without time

Arc

The overall shape of a character change.

From avoidance to commitment.

Attribution

Naming the source and its type so readers can weigh it.

a 2023 residents association survey

Used in: Evaluating Evidence and Spotting Faulty Reasoning

Authority

Whether the author has relevant expertise.

A cardiologist writing on heart health.

Base rate

How common something is in absolute terms.

1 in 100000 people per year.

Caption

The text under an image or chart explaining what it shows.

Water use per person, 2015 to 2020.

Caveat

A stated limitation on a claim.

Effects are smaller in high-attendance schools.

Central idea

The most important idea an informational text develops, said in one sentence.

Biology, not laziness, explains teenage sleep patterns.

Characterisation

The methods a writer uses to show what a character is like.

Actions, speech, thoughts and the reactions of others.

Characterisation

The methods a writer uses to build a character.

Ilse deflecting language.

Used in: Building a Paragraph: Claim, Evidence, Reasoning

Claim

An arguable statement you will prove.

Later start times would improve attendance.

Close reading

Analysis at the level of individual words, syntax and placement.

Why quiet rather than silent.

Used in: Planning and Drafting an Extended Research Essay

Coherence

The quality that makes an argument easy to follow across paragraphs.

Signposting and repeated key terms.

Cohesion

The linking that makes paragraphs flow logically.

Furthermore, consequently, by contrast.

Comma splice

Two complete sentences joined by only a comma.

The bus was late, we missed the film.

Complex character

A character with conflicting motivations who changes.

Someone who fears exposure but speaks anyway.

Compression

Merging events or characters to save time.

Three chapters become one breakfast.

Concision

Saying exactly what is needed in as few words as accuracy allows.

Cutting basically and kind of.

Conflict

The struggle that drives a story, inside a character or between characters.

Nadia versus her own fear of being laughed at.

Connotation

The feeling or association a word carries beyond its plain meaning.

Scrawny sounds unkind; slender sounds admiring.

Context

The historical and cultural situation shaping a text and its reading.

Institutional policy in a modern hospital.

Context clue

Information in the surrounding words that reveals a word meaning.

Fallen trees blocked every route tells you impassable.

Contribution

Anything you add to a discussion, including a question.

Asking for evidence is a strong contribution.

Convergence

Where independent sources agree.

Two datasets showing the same rise.

Used in: Evaluating Evidence and Spotting Faulty Reasoning

Correlation

Two things changing together without proof one causes the other.

Ice cream sales and drowning.

Corroboration

Independent confirmation from another source.

Two unconnected studies agreeing.

Used in: Evaluating Evidence and Spotting Faulty Reasoning

Counter-argument

An opposing point the writer raises and answers.

Some students complain about lost choice.

Counter-argument

The strongest point against your claim, stated fairly.

Some argue homework builds independence.

Counter-evidence

Textual detail that resists your interpretation.

A doctor warning.

Dangling modifier

A modifier whose intended subject is missing from the sentence.

Having finished the exam, the hall emptied.

Data visualisation

A graphical presentation of quantitative information.

An attendance line chart.

Defensible reading

An interpretation supported by evidence that survives counter-evidence.

A rebirth reading built on water imagery.

Development

The change in a character across a text.

Refusal, hesitation, then public action.

Used in: Building a Paragraph: Claim, Evidence, Reasoning

Embedded quotation

A quotation woven into your own sentence.

The writer notes that teenagers feel alert at eleven.

Emphasis

Which facts a writer makes most prominent.

Leading with 60 per cent still open.

Emphasis

What a treatment foregrounds.

One family morning routine.

Ethos

The credibility and character a speaker projects.

Nineteen years in this district.

Used in: Building a Paragraph: Claim, Evidence, Reasoning

Evidence

A quotation, fact or example taken from a source.

melatonin is released later at night

Evidence table

A pre-drafting grid of sources, findings and intended use.

Four rows including one counter-source.

Used in: Planning and Drafting an Extended Research Essay

False dilemma

Presenting only two options when others exist.

Ban phones or accept failure.

Used in: Evaluating Evidence and Spotting Faulty Reasoning

Faulty parallelism

Mixing forms within a list or pair.

running, to swim, and cycling

Fidelity

How closely an adaptation follows its source.

A scene-for-scene film.

Foreshadowing

An early hint of a later event.

A cracked step mentioned twice.

Fragment

A group of words punctuated as a sentence but not able to stand alone.

Because the bus was late.

Framing

Choosing wording that steers interpretation.

90 per cent fat free.

Framing

The wider story a writer places an event inside.

Conservation versus democracy.

Hedging

Language that softens a claim.

may indicate, in some cases

Hook

An opening line written to catch attention rather than to state the main idea.

Teenagers are often accused of laziness.

In medias res

Starting a narrative in the middle of the action.

Opening mid-chase.

In-text citation

A short bracketed credit inside your writing.

(Ahmed, 2022)

Incident

An event that provokes a response and moves the plot.

The accusation about telling.

Independent clause

A group of words with a subject and verb that makes sense alone.

The bus was late.

Integrate

To combine information from more than one source into one understanding.

Using the chart and the sentence together.

Integration

Weaving quotations into your own grammar.

a man made quiet by what he cannot say

Interpretive thesis

An arguable reading of a text that names how the text achieves it.

Silence, not violence, is presented as the true cost.

Intertextuality

The relationship between a text and other texts it draws on.

A novel reworking a myth.

Load-bearing premise

The premise whose failure would collapse the argument.

The democracy precondition claim.

Logos

The appeal to reason, evidence and logical structure.

Three named conditions for success.

Medium

The form a work uses, such as prose, film or stage.

Film uses image and sound.

Modifier

A word or group of words that describes something else.

Running late

Mood

The feeling created in the reader.

A tense, airless mood.

Motif

A repeated image or idea that builds meaning.

Clean water recurring.

Motivation

What drives a character to act.

Nadia wants safety and also wants justice.

Motivation

The reason a character wants something and acts.

Nadia wants to avoid being laughed at again.

Nominalisation

Turning a verb into a noun, often making prose heavier.

implementation instead of implement

Objective summary

A short retelling with no opinions or added information.

Three sentences covering idea plus two key details.

Objective summary

A short retelling of the key events with no opinions added.

A thirsty crow raises the water level by dropping pebbles into a pitcher.

Omission

A relevant fact a source leaves out.

The council text never mentions consultation.

Omniscient

A narrator who knows the thoughts of every character.

Neither of them knew the other was afraid.

Pacing

The speed at which a narrative moves.

Short scenes accelerate the story.

Parallelism

Using the same grammatical form for items of equal importance.

running, swimming and cycling

Paraphrase

Restating a source idea in genuinely new wording and structure, with credit.

Changing sentence shape, not just synonyms.

Paraphrase

To restate what someone said in your own words.

So are you saying the effect fades?

Passive voice

The subject receives the action.

The pool was closed.

Pathos

The appeal to the audience emotions and values.

Give us those three things.

Percentage point

The arithmetic difference between two percentages.

40 to 44 per cent is 4 percentage points.

Personification

Describing a thing as if it were human.

The clock tower bell seemed to think twice.

Phrase

A group of words without both a subject and a verb.

after the storm

Plagiarism

Presenting someone else words or ideas as your own.

Copying a sentence with two words swapped.

Point of view

The position from which a story is told.

First person uses I.

Prefix

A word part added to the front that changes meaning.

im- in impassable means not.

Premise

A stated reason offered in support of a claim.

Children cannot judge long-term interests.

Qualifier

A limit placed on a claim to keep it defensible.

in most cases, to sixteen

Reason

A statement explaining why the claim should be accepted.

Sugary drinks are linked to tooth decay.

Used in: Building a Paragraph: Claim, Evidence, Reasoning

Reasoning

Your explanation of how the evidence proves the claim.

This matters because tiredness is biological, not chosen.

Rebuttal

Your reasoned answer to the counter-argument.

However, independence grows from choice, not volume.

Register

How formal or informal your language is for a situation.

Formal register in a class debate.

Register

The level of formality and the vocabulary appropriate to a situation.

Academic register avoids contractions.

Relevance

Whether evidence actually supports the reason it is attached to.

Decay data supports a health reason, not a cost reason.

Research question

A focused question with a place, time frame and measurable subject.

How did NO2 change after the 2019 zone?

Root

The core part of a word carrying its main meaning.

port meaning carry in transport.

Run-on

Two sentences pushed together with no punctuation or joining word.

The bus was late we missed the film.

Used in: Planning and Drafting an Extended Research Essay

Scope

The boundaries of a question in place, time and subject.

Our district, 2019 to 2024, Grade 10 only.

Semicolon

Punctuation joining two closely related independent clauses.

Funds existed; the plan died anyway.

Signal word

A word that reveals the structure of a passage.

However signals a contrast.

Used in: Planning and Drafting an Extended Research Essay

Structural revision

Reordering, merging and cutting paragraphs before sentence editing.

Reading only topic sentences.

Subordinate clause

A clause with a subject and verb that cannot stand alone.

because the river rose

Subtext

The meaning under the words that is implied rather than stated.

Neither character names the secret.

Sufficiency

Whether there is enough credible evidence to carry the claim.

One anecdote is not sufficient.

Suffix

A word part added to the end, often changing the word class.

-able in readable.

Supporting detail

A fact, example or statistic that proves the central idea.

Melatonin is released roughly two hours later during adolescence.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and clauses in a sentence.

Opening with a participle phrase.

Synthesis

Combining sources into one balanced account.

Both agree the meadow is fenced.

Synthesis

Writing that organises several sources around ideas rather than one by one.

Both reviews agree, but they disagree on cause.

Tension

A genuine disagreement between sources.

Different explanations for the same trend.

Text structure

The pattern a writer uses to organise information.

Cause and effect, compare and contrast, chronological.

Textual evidence

A short quotation or detail from the text that proves your point.

The crow took a pebble and dropped it into the pitcher.

Theme

The message about life that a story shows, written as a full sentence.

Steady effort can solve a problem that strength alone cannot.

Thesis

The sentence stating your claim and main reason.

Homework should be capped because sleep matters more.

Third limited

Third-person narration that can enter only one character mind.

Mara told herself she had done nothing wrong.

Tone

The attitude of the writer or speaker towards the subject.

Mocking, urgent, reverent.

Topic

What a text is about, usually said in one or two words.

Persistence, friendship, loss.

Topic sentence

The opening claim of a paragraph.

The novel associates survival with lost language.

Transformation

The deliberate change a writer makes to source material.

Replacing execution with a night shift.

Truncated axis

A chart axis that does not start at zero, exaggerating change.

A y-axis from 95 to 100.

Turn taking

Sharing speaking time so everyone contributes.

Bringing a quiet member into the discussion.

Turning point

The moment where a character or plot changes direction.

She stood up before she had decided to.

Turning point

The moment a story changes direction.

Sam picking the keys up again.

Unreliable narrator

A narrator whose account the reader has reason to doubt.

A narrator who blames a teacher while hiding unfinished work.

Warrant

The unstated principle that makes a premise relevant to the claim.

Society may act for a child future self.

Withholding

Deliberately delaying information the reader wants.

An unopened letter.