Expository Vocabulary
Terms
Compare and Contrast
• To identify the similarities and differences of
two or more subjects
Extraneous information
• Not relating directly or significantly to the
matter or subject at hand
• irrelevant
Author’s Purpose
These are all examples of what?
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To express feelings or thoughts
To inform or explain
To persuade
To entertain
Patterns of Organization
(the way ideas and information is arranged
and organized)
These are all examples of what?
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Cause and Effect
Chronological Order
Compare and Contrast
Classification
Problem-Solution
• Combination of ideas, values, feelings, and
beliefs that influence the way a writer looks at
a topic
Main Idea
• Central or most important idea about a topic
that a writer or speaker conveys.
• Expressed in the topic sentence
Problem-Solution Order
• Problem is stated and analyzed and then at
least one solution is proposed and examined
Topic Sentence
• States the paragraph’s main idea
Conclusion
• Statement of belief based on evidence,
experience, and reasoning
• This valid statement logically follows from the
facts or statements upon which it is based and
helps bring together the information
Text features
• Elements of a text that help organize and call
attention to the important information
• Briefly retell the main
ideas of a piece of
writing in one’s own
words
Inference
• A logical guess that is based on facts and one’s
own background knowledge and experience
Index
• An alphabetized list of
important topics
covered in the book
and the page numbers
on which they can be
found
• It can be used to
quickly find
information about a
topic
Cause and Effect
• Two events are related when one event brings
about, or causes, the other
Bibliography
• List of related books and other material used
to write a text
• Can be good sources of further study on a
subject
Graphic Organizers
• “word picture” or visual illustration of a verbal
statement that helps a reader understand a
text
• Examples include: charts, tables, webs, and
diagrams
Point of View
• Method of narration used in a short story, novel,
narrative poem, or work of fiction
• Examples:
– 1st person: narrator is a character
– 3rd person: narrator is outside the action (not a
character)
– 3rd person omniscient: all knowing (narrator sees into
the minds of the characters and knows what they are
thinking)
– 3rd person limited: narrator only knows what one
character thinks, feels, and observes
Sidebar
• Additional information set in a box alongside
or within a news or feature article
Footnotes
• An explanatory or documenting note or comment
at the bottom of a page, referring to a specific
part of the text on a page