WEST-B key terms

The central point a passage communicates about its topic, often stated in a single sentence but sometimes implied across several paragraphs. Everything else in the text should support or explain it.

A specific fact, example, reason, statistic, or description that explains, proves, or illustrates the main idea of a text. Details answer the reader's question of how or why.

A conclusion a reader reaches by combining information stated in the text with background knowledge. The text hints at the conclusion without stating it directly, so readers must reason it out.

Information in the words, sentences, or paragraphs surrounding an unfamiliar word that helps a reader figure out its meaning. Clues may be definitions, examples, contrasts, or restatements.

The reason a writer creates a text, most commonly to inform, persuade, entertain, or explain. Purpose shapes the content, word choice, tone, and structure of a passage.

The organizational pattern a writer uses to arrange ideas, such as chronological order, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, problem and solution, or simple description. Recognizing structure helps readers follow and remember information.

To restate the main ideas and most important details of a text briefly and in one's own words, leaving out minor examples, repetition, and personal opinion.

A fact can be verified as true with evidence, while an opinion expresses a belief, feeling, or judgment that can be supported but not proven. Distinguishing them helps readers judge the reliability of a text.

The writer's attitude toward the subject or audience, revealed through word choice, sentence length, and details. Tone might be humorous, serious, critical, nostalgic, or sympathetic.

A message or central insight about life or human nature that a literary work conveys. Themes are usually implied through events, characters, and symbols rather than stated outright.

The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds, called phonemes, in spoken words. It is an oral skill that develops before reading and supports later phonics learning.

The relationship between letters or letter patterns and the sounds they represent, along with instruction that teaches readers to use those relationships to decode printed words.

A sentence, usually placed near the beginning of an essay, that states the central claim or position the writer will develop and support in the body paragraphs.

A sentence, usually the first in a paragraph, that states the paragraph's main point and signals what the remaining sentences will explain or illustrate.

The quality of a paragraph in which every sentence supports the single main point, with no unrelated or distracting information included.

The quality of writing in which ideas connect logically and flow smoothly from one to the next, often achieved through transitions, repeated key words, and consistent pronoun reference.

A word, phrase, or sentence that links ideas and shows their relationship, such as however, therefore, in addition, or on the other hand. Transitions guide readers through the logic of a text.

The rule that a verb must match its subject in number and person, so singular subjects take singular verbs and plural subjects take plural verbs. Interrupting phrases can make this rule hard to apply.

The rule that a pronoun must match the noun it refers to, called its antecedent, in number and gender, and must appear in the correct case for its role in the sentence.

A group of words punctuated as a sentence but missing a subject, a verb, or a complete thought, so it cannot stand alone.

Two or more independent clauses joined with no punctuation at all, or joined only by a comma, which is called a comma splice. Correct it with a period, semicolon, or conjunction.

A descriptive phrase that does not clearly attach to the word it is meant to modify, often because the intended subject is missing from the main clause. The result is confusing or unintentionally funny.

Using the same grammatical form for items in a list or comparison, such as all verbs, all nouns, or all clauses, so that the sentence reads smoothly and balances clearly.

The implied or emotional association a word carries beyond its literal meaning, such as the difference between thrifty and stingy. Connotation strongly affects the tone of writing.

The value a digit has because of its position in a number. In 4,382 the 3 means 300 because it sits in the hundreds place.

The agreed sequence for evaluating a numeric expression: grouping symbols first, then exponents, then multiplication and division from left to right, then addition and subtraction from left to right.

The largest number that divides evenly into two or more given numbers. It is used to simplify fractions and to factor expressions.

The smallest number that is a multiple of two or more given numbers. It is commonly used to find a shared denominator when adding or subtracting fractions.

A comparison of two quantities by division, written as a fraction, with a colon, or with the word to. A ratio describes relative size rather than a single amount.

An equation stating that two ratios are equal. Proportions are used to solve problems involving scale drawings, rates, unit prices, and similar figures.

A ratio that compares a number to 100. For example, 25 percent means 25 out of every 100, which equals the decimal 0.25 and the fraction one fourth.

Any number that can be written as a fraction of two integers with a nonzero denominator. This includes integers, terminating decimals, and repeating decimals, but not irrational numbers such as the square root of two.

A number showing how many times a base is used as a factor. In 3 to the fourth power, the exponent 4 means multiply four factors of 3 together.

A way of writing very large or very small numbers as a number between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10, such as 4.5 times 10 to the sixth power.

A measure of how steep a line is, calculated as the change in the vertical direction divided by the change in the horizontal direction between two points on the line.

The arithmetic average of a data set, found by adding all the values together and then dividing by the number of values. The mean is affected by unusually high or low values.

A number from 0 to 1 expressing how likely an event is to occur, often computed by dividing the number of favorable outcomes by the total number of equally likely outcomes.