This is a massive glossary of essay terms for students. Updated with love and care. Feel free to contact us if we’ve missed anything: let’s grow this list together!
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
- Abstract – a summary of scientific work. Necessary to describe the work done without detail, briefly and concisely.
- AMA – a citation style set by the American Medical Association, mostly used by students and academics in medicine and biology.
- Analyze – when they ask you to analyze, it means you need to break an issue into components, describe each using supporting arguments, and explain how all they interrelate to one another
- Annotated bibliography – a list of citations you used in an essay, with each one followed by a brief (around 150 words) description for readers to see the relevance and quality of the resource you cite.
- Anthology – a collection of short stories by famous authors, gathered in one book or journal. You can use it as a reference for your essay whenever appropriate.
- APA – a citation style set by the American Psychological Association, mostly used by students in social sciences and yet considered the most popular formatting styles in academia.
- ASA – a citation style set by the American Sociological Association, mostly used for bibliographies and footnotes in sociology.
- Argue – when they ask you to argue, it means you need to include your opinion and evidence to an essay.
- Argumentative essay – a paper aimed at persuading readers that a particular point of view is right, while others are wrong. It includes logical arguments and facts, not a mere thesis statement.
- Arrangement – an order of organizing the details in your essay.
- Article – a written composition, non-fiction and prosaic, on a particular topic.
- Assess – when they ask you to assess, it means you need to weigh up how far it’s true. Use arguments, counter-arguments, and relevant research to state how far you agree with a covered issue.
- Assignment – a task your teacher gives you to complete.
- Audience – readers of your essay.
- Bias — an accuracy loss in your research.
- Bibliography – a list of references (books, websites, journals, papers, people, etc.) you use when writing your essay.
- Bluebook – a citation style, mainly used by law researchers.
- Body – an essay content that follows its introduction and represents its main ideas.
- Brainstorming – a process of generating ideas for your essay, when you choose its topic, statements, arguments, etc.
- Bridge – a word or a sentence you use as a transition to connect essay paragraphs and make it flow.
- Calculate – when they ask you to calculate something in an essay, it means you need to use mathematical methods to reckon statements.
- Case Study — when they ask you to do a case study, it means you need to gather all the up-close and in-depth information on a given topic and represent it with all contextual conditions and conclusions.
- CBEP – a citation style, mainly used in the health sciences, physics, mathematics, and biology. It includes two formats: CS – for computer sciences, math and physics, Name-Year – for biology.
- Central idea – the main point of your essay, also known as its topic or thesis.
- Challenge – a question, call to action, or suggestion you leave for readers of your essay to make them think about it and discuss it.
- Chicago – a citation style that relates to formatting your essay’s bibliography. When they ask you to use Chicago, it means you need to organize your references accordingly.
- Citation – a reference to the source of information or quotes you use in an essay.
- Clarify – when they ask you to clarify something in your essay, it means you need to make something clearer. Literally. Simplify complex terms or explain complex ideas with common words.
- Classification essay– a paper organizing some concepts, objects, or events into categories, with each item instantiated.
- Cliché — an overused expression describing a popular thought everyone knows.
- Cluster Analysis – when they ask you to do it, it means you need to group objects according to certain characteristics that make them look more similar to each other than to those in other groups.
- Coherence – arranging your ideas in a way they fit together in a natural and reasonable way, so readers can easily follow from one point to another.
- College essay – a special research paper required for a college committee to evaluate a student. It is often sent to the admissions committee before admission to an institution of higher education.
- Consider – when they ask you to consider, it means you need to share your thoughts on a given topic and back them up with appropriate evidence and own experience.
- Compare – when they ask you to compare, it means you need to discuss similarities and differences of two or more phenomena or items.
- Composition – a process of combining all ideas into one piece of writing.
- Conclusion – a final paragraph of your essay, where you include a modified thesis, a brief review of main points, and a challenge to readers.
- Context – circumstances or facts that form the setting for your essay idea or statement, helping others understand it better.
- Copyright – the exclusive legal rights, given to the author for all their works of creation.
- Coursework – all written or practical work you do during a course of study to assess your knowledge and count your final grade.
- Cover Letter – a one-page (or less) writing piece you craft to complement some documents, such as resumes. It introduces you and your credentials.
- Critique – your evaluation of a text.
- Critical essay – a paper evaluating an issue, pointing out its pros and cons argumentatively and saying whether you agree or disagree with it.
- Comment upon – when they ask you to comment upon something, it means you need to grasp the main idea behind a given topic and share your opinion on it, supporting your points with references to relevant research.
- Contrast – it’s similar to “compare,” but here you need to concentrate on differences rather than similarities of two or more phenomena or items.
- Credibility – a quality saying that someone or something is worth your trust. When, say, a teacher says your resources aren’t credible enough, it means you’ve chosen weak or fake references for essay arguments.
- Data – a piece of factual information used as a basis for discussion, research, or calculation.
- Dead copy – a proofread version of your essay.
- Deadline – a due date, specifying the latest term of submitting your essay to a teacher.
- Deductive essay – a paper concluding some statement by logical reasoning, where you follow this scheme: premises – evidence – conclusion.
- Definition essay – a paper explaining what this or that word/concept means.
- Describe – when they ask you to describe, it means you need to give its detailed explanation in your essay.
- Demonstrate – when they ask you to demonstrate something in your essay, it means you need to describe and explain how that something appeared, and prove it by giving examples.
- Details – examples, facts, statistics, incidents, and anecdotes supporting the argumentation in your essay’s body paragraphs.
- Develop – when they ask you to develop something in your essay, it means you need to expand the idea or argument, taking it further.
- Dialectic essay – a paper built in a form of debate or argumentative dialogue, where you state a thesis and then use both arguments and counter-arguments to prove its verity.
- Diction – your choice of words, phrases, and figurative language that helps to create meaning.
- Didactic – instructional literature.
- Dissertation – a paper submitted to support your candidature for Ph.D. or Master’s degree. It represents your research and findings in a particular field of science.
- Distinguish – when they ask you to distinguish, it means you need to explain the differences between two or more items.
- Discuss – when they ask you to discuss, it means you need to use critical thinking skills and write a case for or against a given argument. Remember to choose evidence carefully and point out both pros and cons of the issue.
- Diagram – a drawing, chart, or any other graphic representation you use to prove arguments in essays. Diagrams go with a brief description.
- Draft – a very first version of your complete essay. You can revise and edit it, if needed, before submitting to a teacher.
- Editing – a process of essay reviewing and revising to correct all grammar, spelling, and factual mistakes.
- Elaborate – when they ask you to elaborate, it means you need to give more details or provide more information on the topic.
- Essay – a paper presenting, explaining, or arguing a single topic or idea.
- Essayist – a person who writes essays as a literary genre. Examples: Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and many others.
- Euphemism – a phrase you use in place of something upsetting or disagreeable. Example: “He passed away” instead of “hi died.”
- Evaluate – when they ask you to evaluate, it means you need to consider the pros and cons of a given approach/contention.
- Examine – when they ask you to examine, it means you need to establish the essential details of a given issue and their correlation.
- Explain – when they ask you to explain, it means you need to describe, interpret, and give reasons for a given issue in brief.
- Exploratory essay – a paper aimed at concluding rather than proving something.
- Expository essay – a paper where you represent someone else’s point of view, without expressing your personal opinion.
- Enumerate – when they ask you to enumerate, it means you need to outline your reply in a list form. Just recount the points one by one.
- Expand – the same with “elaborate.”
- Five-paragraph essay – a traditional essay format, where your paper consists of five paragraphs: an introduction, three body paragraphs with arguments and evidence, and a conclusion.
- Flow – a level by which you determine the efficiency of an essay. If the flow is good, it means your essay is easy to read and its paragraphs are coherent and consistent.
- Focus – concentration on a particular issue to show its significance.
- Footnotes – short comments or citations at the bottom of an essay page, explaining its particular details.
- Formality – a level by which you decide on what words to choose for an essay.
- Formatting – a writing manner you choose to prepare and present your essay.
- Framework – a writing structure you choose to state a thesis and represent ideas/arguments in your essay.
- Freewriting – a process when you write continuously without worrying about how well you do this. It’s used to explore thoughts and reflect on something; you can practice it for essay prewriting.
- Galley – the first printed proof of a document.
- Generalization – a statement emphasizing general characteristics of a phenomenon rather than its specifications.
- Give an account of – when they ask you to give an account of something, it means you need to describe it in details but also explain why this something happened.
- GPO – a writing style set by the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual, mainly used for government printing.
- Grabber – a very first sentence of your essay that should grab readers’ attention. It can be a quote, question, powerful statement, etc. Also, see the explanation for “essay hook.”
- Grammar – a language structure study; a set of rules and standards to follow for proper writing and speaking.
- Gutter – a space between facing pages.
- Harvard – a citation style where all references are placed in round brackets and embedded in the text.
- Hook (essay hook) – a writing trick in the first paragraph of your essay, aimed at grabbing readers’ attention and motivating them to continue reading.
- How far/ To what extent – when they ask you this question, it means you need to do a thorough assessment of the arguments you used in the essay and explore counter-arguments where appropriate.
- Hypothesis – an idea usually put forward in the scientific community when you want to test it, argue for it, and ensure it is correct.
- Identify – when they ask you to identify, it means you need to determine key points you’ll address in your essay.
- Illustrate – when they ask you to illustrate, it means you need to provide examples that would explain a given statement.
- Informal essay – a paper, written for enjoyment. You are welcome to use humor, share your opinion, write it from the first person, and make it less formal than an academic essay. But it needs to be informative and well-structured anyway.
- Interpret – when they ask you to interpret, it means you need to demonstrate your understanding of a topic. Expound it, make it clear, and provide own judgments for it.
- Introduction – a very first paragraph of your essay where you should capture readers’ attention, provide background information about the topic, and motivate people to continue reading. If your essay is formal, the introduction should contain a thesis statement.
- ISBN – a unique number assigned to each book by its publisher to help you identify it. It looks like ISBN 0-221-03232-1, but a 13-digit number format is also acceptable.
- Jargon – words familiar only to a particular profession or group of people, like medical jargon or technical jargon. As a rule, you can’t use jargon (and slang) words in your essays.
- Justify – when they ask you to justify, it means you need to give reasons/grounds for or against a given statement.
- Lab Report – a paper you craft during laboratory courses to explain what you did in the experiment, what you learned, and what results you got.
- Lead – the first paragraph of a manuscript, aimed at grabbing readers’ attention; widely used in journalism.
- Line spacing – a space between the lines of your essay.
- List – a number of items, names, or statements, written one below another, consecutively.
- Literature essay – a paper reviewing or analyzing a book, short story, poem, article, or any other type of literary work.
- Loaded words – lexical items with strong connotations you use in essays to trigger an emotional response from readers and/or exploit stereotypes.
- Manuscript – the original text an author submits for publication. It can be a copy of a novel, article, screenplay, non-fiction writing, etc.
- Margin – a distance between a page edge and content. You can change it in the File menu of your Word document if needed. By default, it’s 1 inch (top and bottom) and 1.25 inches (left and right).
- MLA – the most popular and widely-used citation style; it helps essay writers create an alphabetical list of references.
- Meta-Analysis – a statistical analysis combining the results of multiple studies.
- Method — an approach you choose to research and write essays. It relates to steps you take, techniques you apply, systems you consider for reasoning and analysis, and inquiry modes employed by a given discipline.
- Methodology – a chapter of your dissertation, describing how you performed the research and analyzing the material you used to do it. The term “methodology” may also refer to the study of methods, but not the methods themselves.
- Modified focus – a restated focus statement in your essay conclusion. It reminds readers of the original topic.
- Modified thesis – a restated thesis statement in your essay conclusion. It reminds readers of your opinion on the topic.
- Monograph – a document, written by specialists for other specialists.
- Motivation – a reason of why a person behaves this way or does something. In essay writing, they may ask you to explain the motivation of some historical figures, for example.
- MS – an abbreviation for “manuscript”
- N. – short for “number.”
- Narration – a paper telling a story or describing an event.
- Norm – an average or usual performance.
- Novel – a literary work of a relatively large magnitude that is often written in prose. It is published in book format.
- Objective – bare information, expressing no emotions or personal opinions.
- Organization – an order you choose to arrange essay paragraphs and details.
- Outline – a short summary of your essay, revealing its thesis and features.
- Overview – a brief description of the issues you will cover in your essay.
- Pace — a rhythm with which you “tell” an essay.
- Paper – a piece of writing crafted by one person. It can be an essay, diary, commercial document of a certain value, etc.
- Paraphrasing – restating a text’s central ideas with your own words.
- Paragraph – a short, logical part of your essay. As a rule, one paragraph covers one argument with proper references.
- Peer Review – giving your essay to several experts in the field for them to evaluate it before publication; standard for scholarly publishing.
- Personal essay – an academic paper that is written based on the student’s personal experience. A truthful essay with a proper essay structure.
- Plagiarism – presenting someone’s idea or writings as your own. Strictly prohibited in academia.
- Premise — a question or problem you use as the basic idea of your essay.
- Presentation – a text and visual content you write for a public speech, lecture, etc.
- Prewriting — an initial stage of crafting your essay, when you build an idea, state a thesis, gather the information, and consider the ways to organize all this into a paper.
- Proofreading — a process of reading your work, when you search for grammar/spelling mistakes and try to fix them.
- Proposal – a paper approving you to do a project. It may include recommendations, your academic results, technical background, and so on.
- Prove – when they ask you to prove, it means you need to provide evidence for statements in order to demonstrate their verity.
- Punctuation – a set of rules for using symbols like full stops, commas, colons, and other marks in a text.
- Purpose – a reason you are writing an essay: to inform, express yourself, describe something, share the opinion, gather information, etc.
- Persuasion – a paper aimed at changing the way a reader thinks or acts.
- Query – a teacher’s or editor’s question on your essay.
- Questionnaire – a set of questions on a particular topic; used to gather information, attitudes, or opinions.
- Readability – an ease with which readers can understand your written text.
- Reflection-paper – is an essay or scholarly work in which you must express your opinion on a particular topic or object of discussion. You must add reflection and analysis to the essay, forming thoughts and arguments.
- Relate – when they ask you to relate, it means you need to demonstrate how one idea or statement is relevant to others.
- Research essay – a paper proving some idea or point of view with credible references and corresponding research.
- Response essay – a paper expressing your reaction to something (most often, a piece of writing but it also may be a movie, show, fashion trend, etc.)
- Rhetorical précis – one structured paragraph of text containing four sentences. It records rhetorical elements.
- Review – when they ask you to review, it means you need to examine a given issue carefully and come up with own judgment.
- Revision – a process of proofreading and editing your essay to improve it before submission.
- Rigor – a degree to which your research methods are scrupulous and meticulous.
- Rough draft – a very first organized version of your essay.
- SAT – a special evaluation of students to be completed to be admitted to a higher education institution.
- SCE – a citation style, mainly used in health sciences, physics, mathematics, and biology. It has three formats: Name-Year, similar to APA and known as the Harvard system; Citation-Sequence System and Citation-Name System, both represented with citing essay sources in numbered sequence.
- Scholarship essay – a paper you submit to a committee when applying for the scholarship. It’s short and focused on a subject.
- Serial comma – a comma preceding “and” or “or” in a list of items. Also known as Oxford comma.
- Show how – when they ask you to show how something happens, it means you need to describe the stages in a logical order and with references to relevant evidence.
- Speech – a paper representing the text you or someone else will say to the audience. As well as any other essay, it needs an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Hooks and challenges are crucial, as they help to keep listeners interested. Some personal stories are okay to use, too.
- Spelling mistakes – a problem that is often encountered in a variety of scholarly and conventional writing. A misplaced letter or word ending characterizes it. It is most often reached because of haste.
- State – when they ask you to state, it means you need to specify key aspects of your topic in brief. Refer to evidence and examples where appropriate.
- Statistics project – a paper expressing the vitality of two projects with statistical data. It consists of an introduction, methodology, results, discussion, summary, conclusions, and appendices.
- Structure — an organization of your ideas and content within an essay.
- Stylistics – the study of styles, stylistic devices, and ways to use them in different types of writing.
- Subject – the main topic in a sentence, paragraph, or essay.
- Summarize – when they ask you to summarize, it means you need to give a short description of your essay’s core ideas.
- Synonymization – a process of rewriting others’ ideas with synonyms to avoid duplications and accusations of plagiarism.
- Synthesis essay – a special type of scholarly work in which information is gathered from several sources to form another thesis or idea.
- Term paper – a research paper where you describe events and concepts or argue a certain point. As a rule, they ask you to write this paper at the end of each semester to evaluate your knowledge. Check our page with a relevant service.
- Testimonial – a written or video recommendation from niche experts or happy clients, affirming the quality and value of a product/service. In the context of academic papers, it’s a feedback on essay writers’ work.
- Thesis – a paper you write to demonstrate research and findings in a certain field and prove you’re worth a Ph.D. or Master’s. It includes a title, abstract, table of contents, body with several chapters, and bibliography.
- Thesis statement — a point you want to make in an essay; your opinion on a given topic. Write it in your essay’s introduction in the form of a statement.
- Title — a name of your essay, capturing readers’ interest.
- Tone — words you choose for an essay and the way you arrange them so they would determine your attitude toward a given issue.
- Topic — a subject you choose to cover in a particular piece of writing.
- Trace – when they ask you to trace, it means you need to follow the development of an idea and a sequence of events from the point of origin.
- Translate – when they ask you to translate, it means you need to express the same idea in a different form or convert the information from one language to another.
- Turabian – a citation style, used for bibliographies and footnotes in essays, research papers, theses and other types of academic writing.
- Validity – a degree to which your study reflects the specific concept you try to measure in your work.
- Vancouver – a citation style of writing references in academic papers; mostly used in physical sciences.
- Verify – when they ask you to verify, it means you need to prove and confirm it.
- Vocabulary – words and terms you use in writing.
- Voice – a style and tone you choose to compose an essay.
- Word count – a number of words in your essay.
- Writer – a person engaged in crafting text content. Also known as a journalist, author, or representative of any other profession, requiring writing skills.
- Writer’s block – an inner condition of a writer when they feel unable and unmotivated to craft new content.
- Writer’s guidelines – a set of rules a teacher or publisher wants you to follow while writing.
