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Showing 6 concepts in Reading and Writing.
Using the surrounding words, sentences, and tone of a passage to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word — or which sense of a familiar word the author intends.
An inference is a logical conclusion drawn from evidence in the text combined with your own reasoning — what the author implies without stating it outright.
The main idea is what a text is about; the theme is the deeper message about life or human nature the author conveys through it.
Tone is the author’s attitude toward the subject; mood is the feeling the reader experiences; diction is the word choice that creates both.
The three classical appeals a writer or speaker uses to persuade an audience: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic and evidence).
A thesis is a single sentence stating the main argument of an essay — a specific, debatable claim the rest of the paper sets out to prove.