Glossary

Academia – the higher education community which undertakes and publishes research e.g. universities and colleges.

Academic Integrity – to act honestly and ethically in an academic setting.

Academic register or tone – to write in a manner acceptable for an academic setting. This is generally formal, objective, and free from emotive language. Academic presentations may take on a slightly less formal tone.

Academic vocabulary – words which are acceptable for academic use.

Academic culture – the shared attitudes, values and behaviours in an academic setting.

Active and passive voice – The writing style that puts either a person/entity (active) or an action/thing (passive) as the focus of the sentence structure.

Analyse / analysis – to critically think about or investigate a topic.

APPEAL (author, purpose, publisher, evidence, audience, latest) – a framework for assessing the quality of sources (articles, websites and books).

Assessment / assignment / task / project – something you have been asked to complete as part of your studies in order to fulfil the requirements needed to obtain a mark/grade.

Bias – when personal beliefs, attitudes and interests influence decisions, often unfairly.

• Bandwagon effect – when people think or do something merely because others are doing it.
• Cognitive bias – thought processes that are not objective or open to change with new information.
• Confirmation bias – the tendency to seek out evidence to support your existing beliefs and ideas, effectively disregarding information that counters your existing knowledge.
• Sunk cost fallacy – to continue doing or thinking something that is not working or has been disproved because you have invested a lot of time and energy into that project or belief.
• Vested interest – an opinion that brings reputational or monetary value to the one who holds it e.g. companies are biased towards their own products and would like you to buy them as it makes them money.

Boolean searching – a technique used in searching that helps find relevant results.

Business / industry – an organisation which produces goods or services and may also undertake research activities.

Citation – the process of acknowledging sources in your writing. While it is generally used to describe the in-text element, it is often used interchangeably with ‘referencing’.

Conclusion – a finishing statement or argument which is usually the last paragraph in a written work or presentation.

Cornell Note-Taking System – a widely adopted note taking system developed by Cornell University.

CRAAP (currency, reliability, authority, accuracy, purpose) – a framework for assessing the quality of sources (articles, websites & books).

Critical thinking – to question, analyse and evaluate information and the sources of that information.

Direction or task words – words that indicate what you need to do for your written task.

Discourse markers – words that help to manage the flow and structure of written or spoken communication, e.g. however, furthermore, moreover, finally.

Evidence – literature you have located and referenced to support your opinion or argument.

Findings – the results of research investigations or experiments.

Flow – writing with a logical structure to help guide a reader through a piece of writing and connect with the ideas expressed.

Marking criteria and rubric – a set of criteria that outline what needs to be included in an assignment to achieve a good grade or mark.

Matrix – a table that is used to map out or demonstrate the relationships between different elements of a topic or idea.

Methodology – the steps used to consistently and scientifically investigate a particular topic.

Non scholarly – not published by a reputable scholarly source, may be opinion based.

Paragraph – a short section in a piece of writing which express information about a single theme or idea. A structured paragraph includes a topic sentence, supporting details and a concluding sentence.

Peer reviewed – sources which go through a rigorous review process which is highly critical. This process is conducted by the author’s peers (other experts in the field).

Phrase searching – using double quotation marks (“ “) around a phrase when searching to improve the search results.

Qualifications – a level of study or competence that has been achieved, recognised and awarded by a higher education or industry organisation.

Recommendations – a course of action outlined in a report after critical evaluation of a problem.

Referencing – the process of acknowledging sources in your writing.

Reporting verbs – words which are used to talk about or report on what an author has said e.g. states, argues, claims.

Reputable – is generally accepted as being trustworthy.

Research – has a double meaning in academia. The finding, use and referencing of sources is known as the ‘research’ element of an assignment. However, it also refers to a process of inquiry which involves collecting and analysing data and information to create new theories, methods, models or knowledge.

Scholarly – researched or published by academia using a recognised and reputable methodology or publisher.

Search strategy – a systemic or logical way of searching for information to find relevant results.

Sentences

• Simple – simple sentences stand alone.
• Compound – two or more simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, yet, nor, or, for, so).
• Complex – made up of an independent clause, which makes sense on its own and one or more dependent or subordinate clauses which will not make sense alone.
• Fragments – a sentence that is not complete and does not make sense on its own.
• Run-on – when two independent clauses are joined without a conjunction or punctuation.

SIFT (stop, investigate the source, find other coverage, trace the claims) – a framework for assessing the quality of resources (articles, websites and books).

Subject-verb agreement – a grammatical rule that requires that the elements used in a sentence are either all singular or all plurals.

TEEL paragraphs – A method for structuring a paragraph which stands for topic, explain/elaborate, examples, link.

Thesis statement – a short, single sentence, summary of the main point or argument in an essay or research report.

Tool / application / technology – an electronic item used to complete a process or purpose e.g. computer program, mobile app or piece of electronic equipment.

TRAAP (timeliness, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose) – a framework for assessing the quality of resources (articles, websites and books).

Truncation – a searching technique which uses an asterisk character to retrieve variations of the root word.

WHY (Who was the author? How was it edited? Why was this published?) – a framework for assessing the quality of resources (articles, websites and books).

Wildcards – a searching technique which uses special characters to find words that have variations such as spelling or plural forms.