comp terms to know
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 similies, 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
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 similies, 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