Thesis Statement: One sentence that appears at the end of the introduction and reveals the main idea of the essay.

Topic Sentence: A sentence that reveals what the body paragraph will be about.

Introduction Paragraph: The first paragraph of an essay that introduces the main idea of the essay and ends with the thesis statement.

Body Paragraph: The main part of your essay or paper. Each body paragraph contains a topic sentence that tells readers what the paragraph is going to be about, supporting sentences that discuss the idea or ideas in the topic sentence using examples and/or evidence to support that discussion and a concluding sentence that emphasizes the importance of the supporting examples or evaluates the connections between them.

Conclusion Paragraph: The final paragraph in the essay that provides a call to action and not a summary. The conclusion paragraph should give your readers something to think or discuss about the points in the essay.

Development Sentence: Occurs after the topic sentence in the body paragraph and provides a perspective on the topic that will allow for an understanding of the importance of the evidence that will follow–your opinion, thought, or idea regarding the topic.

Evidence: All words, ideas, facts, or data from another source (other than the brain) that backs up the statements and opinions expressed–must be cited.

Analysis Sentence: Explains why the evidence is important and how it connects to the thesis–do not restate or summarize the evidence.

Conclusion Sentence: Last sentence in the paragraph that draws the body paragraph to a close.

In-Text Citation: The short version of the Source Citation that appears directly after the evidence used and refers the reader to the longer Source Citation.

Source Citation: Publication information in a specific formula for a source used for evidence in a piece of writing

Works Cited: A list of all source citations of the sources used in a piece of writing.