28 terms
Academic Writing Glossary
The words that turn up in assignment briefs and marking rubrics without ever being explained. Each one is defined here in a sentence, and linked to the guide that covers it properly.
Types of essay
The label on the prompt tells you what the marker expects. These are the ones students most often mix up.
- Argumentative essay
- An essay that takes a contestable position and defends it with evidence, including a fair statement of the opposing case before answering it.
- Book report
- A summary of what a book contains and how it is put together. It reports rather than evaluates, which is what separates it from a review.
- Character analysis
- A close reading of how a character is constructed and what that construction does for the text — not a retelling of what the character did.
- Descriptive essay
- An essay built from sensory detail to create a single dominant impression of a place, person, or moment.
- Explanation essay
- A response to a prompt asking why something is the case, setting out causes and mechanisms rather than arguing a position.
- Expository essay
- Writing that informs without taking a side, organised by a recognised pattern such as process, classification, or cause and effect.
- Narrative essay
- An account of an experience that makes a point. The events are chosen for what they show, which is what separates it from a recount.
- Persuasive essay
- An essay aimed at moving a specific audience to a position or an action, drawing on credibility, emotion, and reasoning together.
- Reaction paper
- A considered response to a text or event that combines summary with analysis, and is usually allowed a degree of first person.
- Research essay
- An essay driven by a research question, where the sources shape the argument rather than decorate a position already held.
- Term paper
- A substantial paper written across a term, assessed on sustained research and structure rather than on a single sitting's work.
- Types of essay
- The full set of common assignment labels and the verbs in a prompt that tell you which one you have been given.
Citation and sources
Style guides disagree with each other on almost everything. These entries name what each one asks for.
- Annotated bibliography
- A reference list where each entry is followed by a short paragraph summarising the source and stating what it contributes.
- APA style
- The American Psychological Association's system, now in its seventh edition. Author-date in the text, a References list at the end.
- Chicago style
- The Chicago Manual of Style, seventeenth edition, in two systems: notes-bibliography for the humanities, author-date for the sciences.
- CSE style
- The Council of Science Editors' system, used in the life sciences, with three distinct citation formats to choose between.
- DOI
- A digital object identifier: a permanent code for a published work. Given one, a citation can be built without retyping anything.
- In-text citation
- The short pointer in the body of the paper that sends a reader to the full entry in the reference list.
- MLA style
- The Modern Language Association's system, ninth edition, built around a container model and a Works Cited list.
- Works Cited
- The MLA reference list: every source cited in the text, alphabetised by author surname and set with a hanging indent.
Format and layout
The parts of a paper that cost marks silently, because nobody explains them and everybody assumes you know.
- Hanging indent
- A paragraph where the first line sits flush left and every line after it is indented. Standard for reference list entries.
- Margins
- The white space around the text block. One inch on all sides is the default in APA, MLA, and Chicago alike.
- Page count
- How long a word count runs on paper, which depends on the font, spacing, and margins your brief specifies.
- Word count
- The number of words in a draft. Most briefs set a range, and most markers count everything except the reference list.
Structure and language
The moves a paper makes, named — so you can tell whether yours is making them.
- Conclusion
- The closing section, which answers the 'so what' of the argument rather than restating the introduction in new words.
- Personal statement
- An admissions essay about who you are and why this course. Assessed on specificity and self-knowledge, not achievement lists.
- Thesis statement
- The sentence carrying the claim the paper defends. If nobody could reasonably disagree with it, it is not yet a thesis.
- Transition
- A word or phrase marking the logical move between ideas — contrast, cause, concession — so a reader can follow the reasoning.