Analyze: To break something
whole (a text, an object, a problem, etc.) into its essential parts in order to
examine the structure and to understand how the parts contribute to the whole.
Argument: Writing or
communication that makes a claim and supports the claim with evidence and
reasoning.
Assumption: A
belief or opinion taken for granted as true. Whether stated or unstated,
assumptions influence the authorial choices in a text.
Authorial choices: Details
in a text that serve an author’s purpose, including but not limited to setting,
sequence of ideas and events, evidence and reasoning, description, word choice,
images, and/or sound.
Bias: A preference or
prejudice that inhibits impartial judgment. A statistical sampling or testing
error caused by favoring some outcomes over others.
Claim: The thesis or main
point, supported by data, reasoning, evidence, and effective expression. A claim should be debatable, stating a position on
which reasonable people may disagree.
Compromise: A
settlement of differences in which each person or group makes concessions to
the other side in order to reach an agreement.
Constraints: A
limitation or restriction.
Context: 1. The information within a text that surrounds a particular word,
passage, or section and determines its meaning. 2. The
circumstances or facts that surround a particular text, event, or situation and
shed light on its meaning.
Corroborate: To
strengthen or support with other evidence: to make more certain.
Credibility: The
reliability of a speaker, source, or message: the ability to inspire belief and
trust.
Critical lens: A
secondary source that analyzes and comments on a primary source; a text
composed by a specialist in a discipline (literature, art, science, etc.) that
critiques the strengths and weaknesses of an original work.
Comprehension: The
act of grasping the meaning, nature, or importance of information. Knowledge
gained by understanding.
Conjecture: An
inference or judgment based on incomplete evidence; guesswork.
Data: Factual information used as
a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation.
Delineate: To
outline, sketch, or describe an idea, text, or process using words, symbols, or
gestures.
Discipline: A
branch of knowledge or teaching.
Domain-specific:
Words or symbols specific to a particular field of study (domain).
Ethical: Relating to principles
of right and wrong behavior that govern the conduct of a discipline or
profession.
Evaluate: To examine and judge
carefully.
Evidence: Information that can
be verified – facts, statistics, examples, eyewitness accounts, reports,
studies, and expert testimony. In literary texts, evidence can include the
author’s word choices, sentence structures, and appeals to reason and emotion.
Explicit: Fully and clearly
stated in a text, conversation, or speech, leaving nothing implied.
Exposition:
Writing or communication that informs and explains.
Format: The organization and
arrangement of information, images, or data.
Hypothesis: A
preliminary thesis or tentative explanation that can be tested, refined, or
changed by further investigation.
Implicit: Implied or
understood though not directly stated in a text, conversation, or speech.
Information: The
basis of knowledge, derived from observation, experience, facts, data and
statistics, sensory input, instruction, advice, and news.
Integrate: To bring all the
information needed to complete a text, unit, or project together and make into
a unified whole.
Integrity: 1.
The quality of being honest and fair. 2.
Adherence to a code of moral or artistic values.
Interpret: To explain the
meaning or significance of something.
Language: Spoken, written, and
visual forms of communication (words, symbols, numbers, images, sound).
Media: Forms of
communication that include words, symbols, images, and/or sound.
Message: The main idea, main
point, or thesis developed in a text.
Mode: A form of expression. A
text can be produced in one mode (printed text, for example) and reproduced or
adapted in another mode (film, paint, music, etc.).
Narration: Writing or
communication that relates an event or series of events; a story. Narration can
be imaginary or factual.
Narrative techniques: The
fundamental tools of storytelling, including dialogue, description,
characterization, multiple plot lines, point-of-view, flashbacks, and
reflection, to develop experiences, events, characters, and themes.
Paraphrase: To
put a text into your own words, simplifying and clarifying complex ideas without
distorting or changing them.
Plagiarism:
Presenting as your own work any material – ideas, writings, images, music –
that has been copied and/or paraphrased entirely or in part from another
source, and claiming to be the original creator.
Point of View: The physical position or the mental angle from which a writer or observer beholds a subject. In addition, the pronoun used to express the content: the most common is third person point of view ("he / she / they"), followed by the first person ("I / me"). The least common point of view is the second person ("you").
Premise: A statement upon
which an argument is based.
Prototype: An
original, full-scale, and usually working model serving as the basis for later
stages or drafts.
Qualify: To acknowledge the
strengths and limitations of a claim; to concede the strengths of a
counterclaim.
Qualitative: Evidence that is drawn from observation and analysis; information about qualities that can't be measured in numbers.
Quantitative: Evidence that can be measured and expressed as a number.
Questions / levels of questions / types of
questions: Literal questions can be answered with facts and
information (who? what? when? where?); the answers should not be debatable.
Interpretive questions require you to draw conclusions based on facts and
information; these questions require reasoning and evidence and answers may
vary. Essential questions address important ideas and processes; they are
timeless and forever arguable.
Reasoning: The ability to
support ideas and claims using evidence and logical patterns of thought (i.e.,
cause and effect relationships, compare-contrast, problem-solution, etc.).
Refute: To discredit a claim
or a counterclaim; to disagree.
Rhetoric: The study and art of
using language effectively and persuasively.
Sequence: The logical
arrangement of information.
Speaker: The author or voice
of a written, spoken, graphic, or technological text.
Summarize: To briefly and
accurately state the main idea or point of a text.
Synthesize: To
combine information from multiple sources in order to support an interpretation
or claim.
Technology: The
general collection of communication tools that arise from scientific or
mechanical knowledge, including the printing press, musical instruments, cameras,
computers, SMART Boards, the Internet, etc.
Text: Used broadly across the
content areas, the term text refers
not only to printed texts, but also to spoken language, graphics, and
technological communications.
Theme: In literature and art,
the ideas explored and the questions raised by the work. (Universal themes include challenges, the individual
and society, moral dilemmas, the dynamics of tradition and change). In music, a melody forming the basis of a set of
variations.
Theory: A group of ideas meant
to explain a topic; an explanation based on limited knowledge.
Thesis: The central idea or
claim in a work to which all parts of the work refer.