comp terms to know

Anecdote

Anecdote

a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person

Angle

perspective through which the story will be told

Attribution

telling your readers where the information in your story comes from, as well as who is being quoted.

Audience

the readership of a book, magazine, or newspaper

Byline

a line in a newspaper naming the writer of an article

Connotation

an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning

Denotation

the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests

Documentation

material that provides official information or evidence or that serves as a record

Feature article

presents newsworthy events through a narrative, but it differs from news writing in the respect that it relies on creativity and an element of subjectivity to emotionally connect with readers. Its purpose is to entertain

Figurative language

language that contains figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, hyperbole, etc.

Genre

a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

Hard news

journalistic style and genre that focuses on events or incidents that are considered to be timely and consequential to people locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally

Hed/Headline

the title of a media report

Hook

a thing designed to catch people's attention

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally

Imagery

visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work

Inverted Pyramid

presenting the most important information about a subject first in a news article

Lede

offers important details about the story in the first few sentences (if possible, the first sentence and only one sentence). This catches the readers interest.

Libel

a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable

Newsworthiness

interesting enough to the general public to warrant reporting

Parallel structure

using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance

Paraphrase

a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form

Parenthetical citation

gives credit in parentheses to a source that you’re quoting or paraphrasing. It contains information such as the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number (s) if relevant

Personification

representation of a thing or abstraction as a person or by the human form

Primary source

an account or record (such as a first-hand account, a contemporaneous news report, a photograph, or an audio or video recording) reflecting direct experience of a thing (such as an historical event) that is being researched or studied

Purpose

a subject under discussion or an action in course of execution

Research database

website or a collection of digital objects that contains professional resources or documents that are collected or produced during the process of research

Rhetorical context

the circumstances surrounding any writing situation and includes purpose, audience, and focus.

Scholarly journal

a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published.

Secondary source

an article, report, etc. that is based on firsthand accounts or records of a thing being researched or studied but that is not itself a firsthand account

Signal phrase

attributes a quote or idea to an outside source

Simile

a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as

Soft news

journalistic style and genre that blurs the line between information and entertainment

Thesis statement

a claim made that requires information and research to back up in a research paper

Transition

something that links one state, subject, place, etc. to another :a connecting part or piece

Works cited

a list of sources at the end of a research paper