Academic Editing Glossary

November 10, 2023 | Blog

Welcome to our academic editing glossary, a valuable resource for both seasoned editors and newcomers to the world of academic editing. In this post, we will explore the essential terms and concepts that academic editors encounter in their work. Whether you’re looking to enhance your editing skills or simply curious about academic editing terminology, this glossary will serve as a handy reference guide. Let’s dive right in and demystify the world of academic editing jargon. Glosses are alphabetised letter by letter.

abbreviation a shortened form of a word or phrase (e.g., p. for page). If the abbreviation consists only of the first part of a word, a period appears at the end (Wed., Dec.). See also acronym, contraction, initialism.

abstract a concise summary of a research article, thesis, review, or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject that presents the main motivations, methods, findings, and conclusions of the manuscript. Consult your style guide to determine its specific requirements; most publishers limit abstracts to 250–300 words and prohibit the use of acronyms to aid indexing and promote ease of use (the abstract must be understandable independent of the main text). Abstracts come in two major styles: narrative abstracts, where the entire abstract is written in prose, and structured abstracts, where the abstract has distinct labelled sections with headers that are often bolded. Narrative abstracts are much more common, but some journals require the use of structured abstracts. Always consult the journal’s style guide for their preferred abstract style.

acknowledgements (US English: acknowledgments) a list of people to whom the author is indebted, including copyright owners.

acronym an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g., NASA). Most style guides agree that acronyms are not to be punctuated. See also initialism.

acute accent the diacritical mark over this e: é.

adjective a word describing or characterizing a noun. It can come either before the noun (a green banana) or after (the banana is green). Adjectives also come in comparative (greener) and superlative (greenest) forms. Because an adjective adds something to the noun, it’s also called a modifier or qualifier (it modifies or qualifies the noun). Adjectives take a specific order in English: opinion (remarkable, lovely), size (big, small, puny), physical quality (rough, silken, scratchy), shape (round, square, oval), age (young, old, new), colour (blue, yellow), origin (Dutch, Turkish), material (metal), type (four-sided, U-shaped), purpose (cleaning, hammering, cooking). As with the subjunctive mood, native English speakers operate mostly on instinct when ordering adjectives.

adverb a word that describes or characterizes a verb (she groaned resignedly). It can also characterize an adjective (she is very resigned) or another adverb (she groaned very resignedly). Adverbs are also called modifiers or qualifiers, as they modify or qualify other words. Their position within a sentence varies.

affiliation (1) an author’s university or other post; (2) any degrees or honours given below the author’s name in the list of contributors.

afterword a short concluding section in a book, typically written by someone other than the author. See also foreword and preface.

AH short for anno Hegirae (in the year of the Hijra), i.e., from the flight of Muhammad (mid AD 622 by the Christian reckoning). Used to identify Muslim dates; usually set in small caps. See also small caps.

ampersand a stylized character of the Latin et used to represent the word and.

angle brackets (or chevrons) < >; used in mathematics, quantum physics and linguistics. See also brackets and guillemets.

apostrophe a punctuation mark that makes nouns possessive (Genevieve’s shoulders) or shows where letters have been omitted, as in contractions (needn’t). Apostrophes should not be used in plurals of years (1990s), plurals of uppercase letters (Straight As – although some style guides disagree, and there’s something to be said for avoiding the ambiguity of As) or plurals of surnames (the Browns, the Joneses). They are, however, used to avoid ambiguity when writing lowercase letters in the possessive form (e.g., minding your p’s and q’s or dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s).

appendix (or annex) a section of subsidiary matter at the end of a book or document.

application software that performs a specific function, such as word processing, spreadsheet management or desktop publishing.

Arabic numeral any of the numerals 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9; see also Roman numeral.

articles come in two flavours. An indefinite article (a, an) is used when talking about things or people in general (a chair, a shareholder), and the definite article (the) is used when talking about someone or something specific (the chair, the shareholder).

artwork illustrations, figures, photographs and other non-textual material.

author–date system a system of bibliographical references in which a particular work in the list of references is cited in the text proper using the author’s name and date of publication (e.g., Smith, 1990). Examples include the referencing systems recommended by the MLA and the APA. See also citation, reference, reference list.

automatic list text that has been automatically numbered or bulleted and indented by the word processor rather than manually formatted. Automatic lists are infinitely preferable to manually formatted ones.

baseline the imaginary line on which most letters and other characters rest.

bias a systematic error or deviation in the results or inferences from the truth, often due to personal preferences, preconceived notions, unrepresentative samples, or methodological limitations.

bibliography a list of books or other texts that are referred to in a document or that contain relevant material, typically printed as an appendix. May be titled Works Cited, References or Bibliography, depending on the style guide in use.

binomial nomenclature the formal system of naming organisms in which the first term gives the genus and the second gives the species (e.g., Panthera tigris). Note that the genus begins with a capital letter and the species with a lowercase letter; the term is always italicised in running text. Subspecies names are given after the species name (Panthera tigris sondaica).

bitmap image (BMP) a graphics file made up of pixels; the standard graphics format used in the Windows environment.

blanks experiments conducted on completely clean or “blank” samples to show that the research methods do not introduce unwanted contaminants or systematic biases. See also control group.

bleed of an illustration or design, printed so that it runs off the page.

block capitals (or all caps) plain capital letters; see also small capitals. Block capitals are best avoided, as the uniform letter size makes words set in all caps more difficult to read. For the same reason, block capitals present an editing pitfall; errors in block capitals are notoriously difficult to spot. Read slowly and make sure you change the default Word setting to include block capitals in the spell-check (Word is set to ignore text in block capitals by default).

block quotation a displayed quotation; see also displayed.

blurb a description of the book for the jacket, cover, half-title or publicity material.

bold (or boldface) a style of type with very thick strokes, as here.

bolle (or ring) the diacritical mark over this a: å.

BP before the present (standard practice is to use 1950 as the arbitrary benchmark of “the present”). Used in prehistoric dates; usually set in small caps. See also small caps.

bracket any of the symbols ( ), [ ], { } and < >. Round brackets ( ) are also called parentheses or parens; [ ] are square brackets in UK English, though often simply called brackets in US English; { } are braces or curly brackets and < > are angle brackets.

break off to begin something on a separate line rather than running it on within a paragraph, e.g., subheadings and index subentries. See also index.

bullet a dot or other symbol usually used to introduce items in a list (instead of numbers or letters). Plain filled square or round bullets are preferable; ornamental bullets are best avoided.

caption (or legend or underline) a title or brief explanation set below or beside an illustration.

caret (or circumflex) an inverted v-shaped mark (^) that shows where something is to be inserted; also used in mathematics to represent an exponent, such as a square, cube or another exponential power.

case see lowercase, uppercase.

case study the in-depth investigation of a single individual, group, or event to explore the underlying principles, processes, or phenomena of interest.

catchline an eye-catching line of type, such as a slogan or headline.

causality the cause-and-effect relationship between two variables, where changes in one variable or event influence the outcome of another.

cedilla the diacritical mark under this c: ç.

chapter opening the beginning, or first page, of a chapter.

character a single letter, figure, symbol, or punctuation mark.

circumflex accent the diacritical mark over this e: ê.

citation a short reference in the body of the text to the source of a specific piece of information, quotation, figure, etc. Citations correspond to full references given elsewhere in the text, usually in the back matter, in a bibliography or list of works cited.

clause a group of words with its own subject and verb. A simple sentence might contain only one (John sat on the bench), but more complex sentences have many clauses (John sat on the bench for hours while the pigeons roamed around him and pecked at the crumbs dropped from his packed sandwiches). Independent clauses make sense on their own (I crossed the road…), but dependent (or subordinate) clauses don’t make sense when detached from their main clause (…only to find that I’d parked my car on the other side).

cliché a figure of speech that’s no longer effective due to overuse. If a phrase seems stale, pick another one.

clipping an abbreviation formed by lopping off part of a long word, e.g., advert for advertisement. Always consult a reputable dictionary to confirm whether a specific form is sufficiently formal for use in academic work.

collective noun a noun that stands for a group of people or things, like total or number. It can be singular (The number of typos is staggering) or plural (A number of guests have left).

colophon a publisher’s emblem, device or logo, usually found on the title page of a book.

conditional clause a clause that starts with if, as though or some other expression of supposition. See also mood.

confidence interval the range of estimates for an unknown parameter that describes the likelihood that the population mean falls within that range, based on the stated degree of confidence. For example, a 95% confidence interval specifies a range such that the researcher is 95% confident that the population mean falls within that range. Confidence intervals are calculated using the sample mean and a predefined confidence level (95% is the most commonly used level). See also mean.

conjunction a connection word found at the junction where words, phrases, clauses or sentences are joined. The FANBOYS conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) are always preceded by a comma if they introduce a complete clause. See also clause.

consonant a letter with a hard sound. See also vowel and sibilant.

contraction (1) an abbreviation that includes the first and last letter of the full form of the singular. US English includes a period at the end (Dr., Mme., St.), while UK English omits this stop (Dr, Mme, St); (2) two words combined into one, with an apostrophe showing where letters have been omitted (don’t). Contractions are considered too informal for academic writing and are therefore best expanded.

control group a group of subjects in an experiment who do not receive the treatment or intervention being studied. These subjects are used as a baseline for comparisons with the experimental group. See also blanks.

control variable a variable that is held constant or accounted for in a research study to minimise its potential influence on the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Control variables are generally not of interest to the researcher—they are only controlled for in order to reduce their effect on the relationship being studied.

conversion errors corrupt characters that arise when a file is opened in a different application, or using a different operating system, from the one in which it was created. Conversion errors are common in OCR-produced files, where you’ll often find the letter l in place of the number 1, the number 0 in place of the letter o, etc.

cookie a data file created by a web server that enables a website to identify users and keep track of their preferences.

copy edit (or copy-edit or, in UK English, sub-edit) to make changes to a text in preparation for publication.

copy matter to be published, in particular the text before or after it is copy edited.

copy-fit adjust text to fit the available space.

copyright the sole right, granted by law, to print, publish, translate, perform, film, or record an original literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work for a certain number of years.

credit acknowledgement of the source of an image.

cropping “cutting down” or masking an illustration, such as a photograph, to remove extraneous areas.

cross-sectional study a research design that examines multiple samples from a population at a single point in time, often used to compare different population groups or assess the prevalence of a particular characteristic or condition. An important aspect of cross-sectional studies is that the subjects are observed without being influenced by the observer in any way. Cross-sectional studies are the experimental opposite of longitudinal studies. See also longitudinal studies.

crosshead a centred heading or subheading.

dangler a word or phrase in the wrong place that ends up describing the wrong noun, e.g., After swimming, the beach was empty. The subject doing the swimming should, ideally, follow the comma: After swimming, we emerged to find the beach empty. Danglers are often unobtrusive, but if a dangler causes even momentary confusion, help the reader by rewriting the sentence.

data collection the systematic process by which information on variables of interest is gathered and measured to answer research questions, test hypotheses, and evaluate outcomes.

demonstrative pronouns pronouns that are used to identify something: this, that, these, those.

dependent variable the variable being measured or observed in a study, which is expected to change as a result of the independent variable(s). A study generally only has one dependent variable, although some studies may investigate multiple dependent variables at the same time. In such cases, it is important to ensure that the dependent variables do not affect each other—this is known as the “carryover effect”. The methodology section should explain how the researchers have avoided this issue. See also independent variable.

descriptive statistics numerical measures that summarise and describe the main features and distribution of a dataset, such as the mean, median, mode, range, and standard deviation of the data. Note that the descriptive statistics of the sample are not the same as the descriptive statistics of the population. For example, the sample mean and the population mean are not the same. See also mean, median, and standard deviation.

desktop publishing (DTP) the process of laying out pages on-screen.

diacritics (often loosely called accents) the dots, squiggles and lines written above, below, or thorough a letter to indicate pitch, stress, or vowel quality; see also acute accent, bolle, cedilla, circumflex accent, grave accent, macron, tilde, umlaut.

diaeresis (or trema or umlaut) two dots placed over a vowel to show that it is pronounced separately (e.g., naïve, Brontë).

digraph (or ligature) (1) two or more letters joined together and combined as a single character, e.g., æ, œ; (2) a combination of two letters representing one sound, as in ph.

displayed set on separate lines and distinguished from the text by either a smaller or larger size or by a different position in relation to the margin (e.g., indented or centred). Displayed matter is usually preceded and followed by a little extra space. Examples of displayed matter are headings, long quotations, and mathematical equations.

DOI (short for digital object identifier) a unique alphanumeric string assigned by the International DOI Foundation to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the internet. All DOI numbers begin with a 10 and contain a prefix and a suffix separated by a slash. DOIs are preferred to URLs whenever possible.

double negative combining a negative verb with another negative term (nothing, nobody, hardly, never, neither, nor, impossible, unbearable, nonsensical). It’s preferable to turn the statement into a positive one, except where fine shades of meaning are desired (e.g., Another recession is not inconceivable).

drop capital (or drop initial) a large capital letter at the beginning of a section of text, occupying more than the depth of one line.

eadem the feminine form of idem. Used to mean “the same female author as before”. See also idem.

ebook (or e-book) the electronic version of a book, read on an e-reader, tablet, smartphone, or desktop app.

edition one or more printings (or impressions) of the same version of a book in the same kind of binding. The term “new edition” is not used unless the text has been changed so much that libraries and people who already have the book will need to buy the new version. New issues that contain only minor corrections are called reprints or new impressions. The same text issued in a different binding or at a lower price may be called a paperback edition or cheap edition.

elision the running together of pairs of numbers, e.g., 38–39 becomes 38–9 and 213–218 becomes 213–18. Note the use of an en dash (not a hyphen) to indicate the range. Also note that some style guides require elision, while others forbid it; always check your particular style guide’s instructions on this point.

ellipsis three points used to indicate an omission. Some style guides use an additional period when the ellipsis comes at the end of a complete sentence. In general, the ellipsis character produced by your word processor will suffice, though some style guides insist on three spaced full points, like this: . . .

em a unit for measuring the width of printed matter, originally equivalent to the width of a capital roman M in the typeface in use, but in digital fonts equivalent to the current type size.

em rule (or em dash) a long dash (—), used as a parenthetical dash in US English—like this—and not spaced on either side, except in journalism. See also en rule and hyphen.

embedded integrated into the text, e.g., a graphics file inserted into a Word document.

en a measurement half the width of an em. See also en point, en rule.

en point a point set midway along the width of an en so that the point will appear with space either side of it; it may be medial or low.

en rule (US English en dash) a short dash (–), used as a parenthetical dash in UK English – like this – and spaced on either side when so used. The en dash has many uses. It elides ranges of figures (where 211–9 means 211–219) and joins equivalent concepts that together modify a noun that follows (blood–brain barrier). It is often equivalent to to or versus (the 1914–1918 war; the nature–nurture debate; the Cape Town–Nairobi–Cairo route). The en-dash is also used for joint authors (the Prosser–Keeton text). Do not use it for one person with a double-barrelled name. The dash is also used for phrasal adjectives in which the individual elements contain spaces or internal hyphens (a Pulitzer Prize–winning author; pre–Civil War society). Where disjunction or tension is being indicated, the en dash is preferable to the virgule (e.g., possessive–genitive dichotomy, not possessive/genitive dichotomy). When an author uses a double hyphen to approximate a dash, replace it with a true en dash. See also em rule and hyphen.

end matter (or back matter) the material that supplements and follows the text proper (e.g., appendixes, bibliography, indexes). See also appendix, bibliography, index.

endnotes notes that follow the appendixes or text (or, more rarely, the relevant chapter) rather than appearing at the foot of the relevant page of text.

epigraph a quotation placed at the beginning of a volume, part, or chapter.

even small caps small capitals without full capitals. See also small caps.

experimental design a description of the process by which one or more independent variables are manipulated to investigate their effect on a dependent variable, often involving the use of control and experimental groups. See also control group and experimental group.

experimental group a group of subjects in an experiment who receive the treatment or intervention being studied, with their outcomes compared to those of the control group. See also control group.

external validity the extent to which the findings of a study can be applied to other populations, settings, or circumstances beyond the specific context in which the research was conducted. This is also more commonly known as generalisability. All experiments are designed to maximise both internal and external validity. See also internal validity.

extract a term used by some typesetters to refer to a displayed quotation.

face short for typeface.

field a feature used by some software to act as a placeholder for text that might change in a document (e.g., dates, tables of contents, list of figures, internal cross-references, citations, references).

figure an illustration (often a diagram or other line drawing) that is integrated into the text.

file conversion a process that enables files to be changed from one medium or operating system to another.

file format the form in which information is encoded for storage in a file, indicated by the characters after the full point in a filename (e.g., a Word document, denoted by .doc or .docx).

file translation a process that changes files created by one application into a format that can be read by another application.

file viewer an application that enables a file to be viewed and printed (but not edited) without the application in which it was created.

flatten to compress the digital layers that make up an image into a single plane.

floating accents accents that can be positioned over any letter.

flush left aligned with the left-hand edge of the text.

flush right aligned with the right-hand edge of the text.

folio the page number in a printed book.

font the characters of a single size of the same typeface, including alphabets of capitals, small capitals, lower case, figures, punctuation marks, etc. Sans serif fonts have no true small capitals; small capitals can be approximated by using all caps in a smaller type size.

footer text that is repeated at the foot of the page, such as the page number.

footnote a note printed at the bottom of a page within the text area and above the footer.

foreword introductory remarks about a book or its author, usually written by someone other than the author. See also preface.

format the appearance of text in a word-processed file, e.g., the font and type size, position and colour. See also file format.

full out adjoining the left or right margin. If a passage starts full out, it is not indented.

full point another term for a full stop (UK English) or period (US English).

gerund a word that’s made of a verb + ing and that acts as a noun (Bowling is an obsession of mine). Gerunds are sometimes called verbal nouns.

global change (or find and replace or search and replace) the facility of a computer program to find all examples of a character string in a file and replace them with a specified alternative. With great power comes great responsibility; be extraordinarily careful with global changes, lest you end up with unintended consequences like %age.

gloss an explanation of a word, either in the margin or in a note. This glossary comprises many glosses.

grave accent the diacritical mark over this e: è

guillemets special quotation marks marks (« ») used in Russian, French, German, Italian, and several other languages. These should be anglicized (i.e., replaced with either double or single quotation marks, depending on the desired dialect) unless the text in question is intended for learners of a foreign language.

hanging indentation the first line of the paragraph starts at the left margin, and subsequent lines are indented. Commonly used in reference lists.

hard copy a printout of an electronic file.

hard hyphen a hyphen that is an integral part of the word and remains wherever the word appears in the line, as opposed to the “soft” hyphen. See also soft hyphen.

hard return the space and, sometimes, the indention created by pressing the “return” or “paragraph return” key. See also soft return.

Harvard system a version of the author–date system of bibliographical references; loosely, the author–date system generally.

header text that is repeated at the top of a page, such as a chapter title or main heading. See also running head.

heading a title at the head of a page, section, or table.

headline a running head.

headword a word that begins a separate entry in a reference work.

house style the publisher’s preferences on the presentation, layout, and style of material for publication.

hyperlink an electronic link between objects, so that clicking on the hyperlink in one takes you to the other.

hyphen a horizontal line (-) shorter than an en dash. A hyphen is used to join words to indicate that they have a combined meaning or that they are linked in the grammar of a sentence (e.g., user-friendly interface), to indicate that a word is being broken at the end of a line, or to indicate a missing element (as in pre- and post-test design).

hypothesis a testable and falsifiable statement that predicts a relationship between two or more variables, often serving as the basis for empirical research. A study can have multiple hypotheses depending on the content of the research. In statistical studies, these hypotheses should be stated and/or defined explicitly in the Introduction or in a Research Question section. An important type of hypothesis is the null hypothesis, which is the hypothesis that no relationship exists between the variables being studied (i.e., any correlation between the two variables is purely due to chance). It is usually denoted as H0. Related to the null hypothesis is the alternative hypothesis, which is an alternative proposition that should be considered if the null hypothesis is found to be false. It is usually denoted as HA or H1. Alternative hypotheses are usually formulated with reference to the literature.

ibid., ibidem Latin for “in the same place”.

idem or id. Latin for “the same”, used to mean the same (male) author as before. See also eadem.

idiom (1) the style of expression that is typical of a particular period, person or group; (2) a phrase whose overall meaning is unrelated to the meanings of the individual words (e.g., the elephant in the room).

imperial measurements a non-metric British series of weights and measures, such as ounce, pint, inch, and acre.

imprint of a publisher, a name and address, usually given on the verso of the title page. See also verso.

indefinite pronouns pronouns that refer to vague or unnamed people or things: all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, every, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, much, neither, no one, nobody, none, one, other, several, some, somebody, someone, something, such.

indentation (or indention (dated)) beginning a line further from the margin than the rest of the passage. See also hanging indentation.

independent variable a variable that is manipulated or controlled by the researcher in order to investigate its effect on the dependent variable. See also dependent variable.

index an alphabetical list of key terms that appear in a long text, with reference to the pages on which they are mentioned. The index is placed in the back of a book.

index locorum in classical books, an index of passages cited.

indicative a verb expressing a straightforward statement or question (I am going to bed).

indicator (or note indicator or cue) a number, letter or symbol placed in the text to direct the reader to a footnote or endnote. In print publishing, numbers or letters may be replaced by symbols, which are used in the following order: *, †, ‡, §, ¶, ||. This system does not translate well into ebooks or online publishing, where numbers or letters are preferable.

inferential statistics statistical methods used to make inferences and generalisations, and/or test hypotheses, about a population based on the analysis of data collected from a sample. Certain inferential statistics can only be used for certain distributions. For example, many inferential statistical tests assume that the population is normally distributed (e.g., Student’s t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s r, and other parametric tests). If the data cannot be safely assumed to be normally distributed, alternative (potentially non-parametric) tests should be used instead.

infinitive a verb in its simplest form (sneeze). While the preposition to usually tells us that we’re about to see the infinitive in action, it’s not an integral part of the infinitive. Putting an adverb in the middle (to violently sneeze) is absolutely fine; we’re dealing with English, not Latin.

infographic clear visual representation of otherwise complex data.

initialism an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately (e.g., BBC); sometimes set in small caps. Initialisms may or may not take stops after each letter, depending on the author’s preference (BBC/B.B.C.), though the former option is clearly superior in terms of efficiency, and most style guides agree that such abbreviations are not to be punctuated. Watch out for the tendency to use such stops as separators rather than indicators of omission; some authors will write B.B.C, omitting the final stop. This is never permissible. See also abbreviation, acronym, contraction.

inset map a small map inserted in a corner of a large map.

interjection a word or words expressing a sudden rush of feeling (e.g., Wow!).

internal validity the extent to which the design and conduct of a study support the observed results as well as the conclusions drawn from those results. See also external validity.

interrogative an expression that asks a question (e.g., Is that clear?).

interrogative pronouns pronouns used to ask questions: what, which, who, whom, whose.

ISBN International Standard Book Number.

ISSN International Standard Serial Number.

italic letters that slope to the right, like this.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) (or jpeg or Jpeg) a bitmap file format that compresses image data to produce a smaller file. Does not work well on lettering or line drawings.

justified of text, adjusted so as to fill the width of the text area and align at the left and right margins. Hyphenation is essential when working with fully justified text, as poor word breaks can result in overly large inter-word spacing, creating a text block of variable density. Such text blocks are more difficult to read and should be avoided.

kerning (1) the horizontal spacing between two consecutive characters; 2) adjusting the space between individual characters within a word.

key in to indicate the approximate position of a figure, table, etc., by leaving a note in the manuscript (e.g., [Insert Table 3 about here]).

key information included on a map or diagram that explains the scale, measurement, or abbreviations.

keywords (or less commonly key words) words or phrases associated with a particular document or describing the contents of a particular document. Keywords are used in journal articles to facilitate indexing and searching. To be effective, keywords must accurately describe the contents of an article and be specific to the subfield of the paper.

label explanatory description of a feature in an illustration.

landscape the shape of an illustration or book when its width is greater than its height. A landscape page is a page on which tables, illustrations, etc., are turned to read up the page so that their foot is at the right-hand side of the page. See also portrait.

LaTeX a typesetting programming language designed to enable keying of complicated mathematics. Commonly used in the hard sciences, economics and politics. See also TeX.

leader line (or callout) a labelled line added to an illustration to point out a salient feature.

leaders a series of dots or dashes across the page to guide the eye, commonly found in tables of contents.

leading (pronounced “ledding”) the vertical space between lines of type, measured from baseline to baseline, so called because strips of lead were added between lines of metal type.

lemma (1) a headword or catchword, such as a quoted word or phrase, at the beginning of a textual note (pl. lemmata); (2) in mathematics, a preliminary proposition used in the proof of a mathematical theorem (pl. lemmas).

letterspacing the addition of small spaces, usually between capitals or between small capitals, to improve their appearance. In German and Greek texts, lower-case letters may be letterspaced for emphasis.

linefeed the distance from the bottom of one line of type to the bottom of the next.

literal (or typo in US English) a mistake made when setting type, particularly mistakes affecting only one or two letters.

loc. cit. abbreviation of Latin loco citato, “in the place cited”.

longitudinal study a research design that follows a group of subjects over an extended period, collecting data at multiple time points to examine changes and trends in the characteristics of the group. Longitudinal studies are the experimental opposite of cross-sectional studies. See also cross-sectional studies.

lower case the small letters as distinct from capitals (caps) and small capitals (small caps). See also small capitals.

macro a software instruction to perform a series of actions, such as several consecutive find and replace operations.

macron the diacritical mark over this e: ē:

margin the white space around the text area on a page.

markup the result of correcting text in preparation for publication. See also mark up.

mark up the process of correcting text in preparation for publication. See also markup.

mean the mean, or arithmetic mean, is a measure of central tendency that represents the average value of a set of numbers. To calculate the mean, the sum of all the values in the dataset is divided by the number of values. The arithmetic mean is sensitive to extreme values (outliers) and may not always represent the central location of the data accurately. In some cases, the mean can also refer to the “geometric mean”, which is defined as the nth root of the product of all terms in the dataset, where n is the number of terms. This is more accurate than the arithmetic mean for distributions that describe compound growth. For this reason, geometric means are more common in finance (compound interest, certain financial indices, etc.). See also median.

measure the width to which a complete line of type is set; usually expressed in picas (12 pt ems), sometimes in millimetres.

median the median is another measure of central tendency that represents the middle value in a dataset when the values are arranged in ascending or descending order. If the dataset has an odd number of values, the median is the middle value; if the dataset has an even number of values, the median is the average of the two middle values. Unlike the mean, the median is not affected by extreme values and provides a more accurate representation of the central location of the data when the dataset is heavily skewed or contains outliers. See also mean.

meta-analysis a statistical, quantitative research technique that combines the results of multiple independent studies to provide an overview of multiple studies, which allows researchers to uncover potential patterns and relationships between similar studies.

minuscule of or in lowercase letters.

mixed-methods research a research approach that combines both qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a multifaceted research problem or question.

mode the mode is the value of the most commonly occurring term in a distribution. By definition, in a normal distribution, the mode is the same as the mean and the median. However, it is not uncommon for distributions to have more than one mode. For example, bimodal distributions are datasets with two major peaks, trimodal distributions are datasets with three major peaks, and so on. An example of a bimodal distribution is the number of customers visiting a restaurant over time: customers tend to eat during lunch and dinner, and thus customer visits tend to peak during these two periods. See also mean and median.

mood distinct forms taken on by a verb that reflect the speaker’s attitude toward what’s being said. English has three principal moods: indicative (ordinary statements/questions about facts: Adora is a cat), subjunctive (wishes/statements contrary to fact: I wish she were a tiger instead; if she were a tiger, we’d be having some real fun together) and imperative (commands/requests: Transform yourself into a tiger!).

N (italicised, uppercase) a symbol used to represent the total number of participants or units in a study. It denotes the sample size, which directly affects the generalisability, statistical power, and precision of the study findings. In statistical analyses, n (italicised, lowercase) often represents the number of participants or units in a specific subgroup or category within the larger sample. Important: in some fields, N refers to population size, n refers to sample size, and ni refers to the size of the subset i taken from sample n. Note that the first definition described above (N = sample size, n = size of sample subset) is the one provided by both the APA and AMA style guides.

note a piece of explanatory or additional information printed at the end of a section, in the end matter of the publication (as an endnote) or at the foot of the page (as a footnote). Table notes appear at the foot of a table and clarify the information found in tabular matter.

noun a word denoting a person, place, thing or idea. Common nouns (ship, mountain) start with a small letter. Proper nouns (Sydney, Jocelyn) start with a capital letter.

object the noun or pronoun acted on by a verb. It can be something you give or somebody you give it to. An indirect object is the person or thing on the receiving end of the action, and a direct object is who or what ends up there. Harry gave Meghan [indirect object] the bag [direct object].

op. cit. abbreviation of Latin opere citato, “in the work cited”.

operating system software that governs the operation of a computer, including running the applications. Examples are Windows and macOS.

operational definition the standardised description of a theoretical concept or variable in terms of the procedures or methods used to measure or manipulate it within a study. For example, depending on the study, the operational definition of anxiety may be a threshold score on a specific test, the subject’s withdrawal from a specific situation, or a biological response to a specific stimulus.

orphan the first line of a paragraph or a heading at the foot of a page or column. Orphans are unsightly and are best avoided; Microsoft Word automatically controls for widows and orphans if instructed to do so. See also widow.

overmatter material that exceeds the allotted space.

overrunning the rearrangement of lines of type caused by a correction that makes a line longer or shorter. The insertion of a word in the first line of a paragraph may mean overrunning as far as the end of the paragraph, i.e., taking a word or two from the end of each line to the next and altering the word spacing accordingly.

Oxford comma another term for the serial comma.

page layout the process by which pages are assembled; the appearance of the page(s) thus assembled.

pagination page numbering.

part a group of related chapters with a part number or title or both; this part heading often appears on a separate leaf that is sometimes called a part title.

parts of speech the eight categories of words in traditional grammar: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb,preposition, conjunction, and interjection. This sentence uses all of them: But [conjunction] gosh [interjection], you [pronoun] are [verb] really [adverb] in [preposition] terrible [adjective] trouble [noun]!

PDF (short for Portable Document Format) a file format that is independent of the application in which it was created so that formatting, layout, fonts, and audio can be rendered as the originator intended.

peer review the process by which research articles, proposals, or other scholarly work are evaluated by experts in the same field to ensure the quality, rigour, and validity of the findings before publication or funding.

personal pronoun a word standing in for a noun; can be a subject (I, you, he, she, it, we, they), object (me, you, him, her, it, us, them) or possessive (my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs).

phrase a group of related words without its own subject and verb, e.g., “to spill the beans”.

pica a measurement, 12 pts, i.e., approx. 4.21 mm or a sixth of an inch.

pincite a pinpoint citation pointing the reader to a specific page or pages within a legal case. Pincites are placed after the page on which the case begins, separated by a comma and a space. A pincite may consist of a page range or multiple non-consecutive pages.

pitch the density of printed or typed characters on a line.

pixel picture element; a single physical point in a bitmap image.

point (1) a unit of measurement for type sizes and spacing, now standardized as 0.356 mm or 1/72 inch; (2) a dot, e.g., a full stop (also called a full point).

population the entire group of individuals or entities that a researcher is interested in studying, from which a sample is drawn for analysis. Ideally, the entire population should be tested; however, usually, samples are drawn due to logistical or financial limitations. If there are specific limitations, encourage the client to elaborate upon them.

portrait (1) the shape of a book or illustration when its height is greater than its width; (2) if a table is “set portrait”, it is set upright on the page and not turned. See also landscape.

possessive showing ownership. Most nouns become possessive in form (or case) by adding an apostrophe + s or the preposition of. Double possessives get both: a good friend of Alice’s.

predictive text tool software tools that automatically insert predetermined text; known as AutoCorrect, AutoText and AutoComplete in Microsoft Word.

preface a personal note by the author about the book, usually setting out its purpose, scope, and content.

preliminary matter (or prelims or front matter) the pages preceding the main text of a book (e.g., half-title, title page, contents list, preface).

preposition a word that situates words in relation to one another. It usually comes before a pronoun or noun. It can go at the end of a sentence, no matter what you’ve heard. Examples: about, above, below, across, after, against, along, among, around, before, behind, below, down, except, for, from, inside, outside, over, past, since.

pronoun a word that can be used in place of a noun. Pronouns fall into different categories; see also personal pronoun, reflexive pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, indefinite pronoun, interrogative pronoun and relative pronoun.

qualitative research an exploratory research approach that focuses on the collection and analysis of non-numerical data, such as text, images, or audio, to gain insights into human behaviour, beliefs, and experiences.

quantitative research an exploratory research approach that involves the collection and analysis of numerical data to describe, explain, or predict phenomena. The data collected are often analysed using statistical methods to accept or reject the hypotheses proposed by the research.

quotation marks (or quotes or inverted commas) punctuation marks used chiefly to indicate the beginning and the end of a quotation in which the original author’s wording is reproduced exactly. Curly (or smart) quotation marks should be used in most writing. Straight quotation marks, also known as primes (single straight quotation marks) or double primes (double straight quotation marks), are best reserved for their specialist applications in mathematics. Avoid scare quotes, which express scepticism or derision concerning the use of the enclosed word or phrase.

ragged right (or unjustified) of text, justified only at the left margin, resulting in variable line width.

random sampling a sampling method in which each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected, ensuring that the sample examined is unbiased and representative of the entire population.

range with reference to type, to align or to be aligned, especially at the ends of successive lines.

raters individuals who evaluate, assess, or assign scores to certain aspects of the subject being investigated, typically following a predetermined set of criteria or guidelines. Raters are often used in studies that involve qualitative or subjective elements, where human judgement is necessary to measure the variables of interest (e.g., studies involving human behaviour, psychological assessments, or performance evaluations). They can also be involved in the coding or categorisation of data, such as in content analysis or coding open-ended survey responses. The reliability and validity of the data generated depend on the consistency and accuracy of the raters’ judgments. To ensure reliable and valid outcomes, researchers often train raters on the specific criteria they will use for evaluation and may use multiple raters to assess each data point. This allows for the calculation of inter-rater reliability, which is an important measure of the consistency of raters’ judgments across different individuals.

recto the right-hand page of a spread, having an odd page number. See also verso.

reference a full bibliographical reference to another work, usually given in the reference list or bibliography. See also citations, reference list, bibliography.

reference list a list of bibliographical references. Not to be confused with citations. See also bibliography and citations.

reflexive pronouns myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. Reflexive pronouns call attention to themselves, either to emphasize the subject or to refer to a subject already named in the sentence (she herself was late that day; he blames himself for what happened next).

register the style of language, grammar and words appropriate to particular situations. Academic work requires a formal register; speech tends to be less formal in register. See also tone.

relative pronouns that, what, whatever, which, whichever, who, whoever, whom, whomever, whose. Relative pronouns introduce dependent (or subordinate) clauses.

reliability the consistency and stability in the ability of a measurement or instrument to reflect the truth in a population over time, across different raters, or under varying conditions. See also raters.

replication repeating an experiment within the context of an experimental design. Experiments are usually conducted in “duplicate” or “triplicate” to ensure that the results of a given experiment were not due to human error. In this case, experiments are repeated by the same research group multiple times.

reproducibility a quality that describes the ease with which a study can be reproduced by an independent research group by following the same methodology and procedures as the original research. Studies are often reproduced to confirm or challenge the initial findings.

research design the overall strategy, structure, and organisation of a research project, which is aimed at answering specific research questions or testing hypotheses. It provides a blueprint for conducting the study and guides the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. The choice of research design depends on the research questions, the objectives, and the nature of the data required to address them. A well-designed study helps to minimise bias; control for potential confounding variables; effectively address the research objectives; and increase the validity, reliability, credibility, and generalisability of the findings. There are several types of research designs, which can be broadly classified into two categories: quantitative and qualitative. Some common research designs are described below. Experimental design involves manipulating one or more independent variables to study their effects on a dependent variable. Random assignment of participants to experimental and control groups helps to control for confounding variables and establish causality. Quasi-experimental design is similar to experimental design but without the random assignment of participants to groups. It still involves the manipulation of independent variables but may be subject to more confounding variables, making causal inferences more challenging. True experimental designs are generally preferred to quasi-experimental designs, but quasi-experimental designs are still used in studies where true experimental designs are impossible due to logistical or ethical reasons. An example of this would be a study conducted to determine whether school-provided lunches help or hinder student attentiveness. A true experimental design would be to randomly assign half the students to receive lunch, while the other half receives nothing. However, this is clearly unethical, and such a study would not be permitted. Instead, a quasi-experimental design might be used to compare two schools, one of which caters lunch, while the other does not. Correlational design examines the relationships between two or more variables without manipulating any of them. It helps to identify associations and trends but cannot establish causality. Descriptive design focuses on describing the characteristics of a population, phenomenon, or situation. In these studies, the data are collected and analysed using methods such as surveys, observations, and case studies. Importantly, a researcher should not control or manipulate any of the variables investigated. Case study design involves an in-depth investigation of a single case or a small number of cases, often used in qualitative research. Although case studies can provide rich, contextual insights, they lack generalisability—sweeping conclusions cannot be made on the basis of such limited samples and should be discouraged unless they are well-supported by other data. Grounded theory design aims to develop new theories or concepts based on the analysis of qualitative data. Data collection and analysis are performed iteratively and systematically, with emerging themes guiding further data collection and the revision of the theory. Phenomenological design is a descriptive, qualitative research approach that focuses on exploring the lived experiences of individuals to gain a deep understanding of a particular phenomenon. Researcher objectivity is essential to phenomenological design.

resolution the number of dots or pixels in a given area, measured in dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi).

reverse out to reverse titles or words normally set in italic typeface to roman, such as in a heading that has been designed to be in italic (e.g., Bleak House: An Analysis).

roman an upright style of type used for text that requires no special emphasis or distinction, like this text.

Roman numeral any of the letters representing numbers in the Roman numerical system (I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, etc.).

RTF (short for Rich Text Format) a file in which formatting and other electronic information is preserved in coded form.

rule a continuous line, e.g., in a fraction or at the top and foot of a table. See also em rule, en rule.

run on (1) text runs on if it continues on the same line rather than starting a new line or new paragraph; (2) chapters run on if each one does not start on a fresh page.

running head (or headline or pagehead) a heading set at the top of each page.

running text continuous text, as distinct from displayed equations, notes, footnotes, etc.

sample a subset of the population selected for participation in a study. Conclusions drawn from the analysis of the data collected from the sample are used to make inferences about the larger population.

sampling the act of selecting samples that are representative of a population of interest; different sampling methods are used for qualitative and quantitative studies. In most studies, samples are either selected at random (probability sampling) or are chosen by the researcher following some predefined methodology or criteria (non-probability sampling). Clients should be encouraged to explain why a specific sampling method was chosen. Some qualitative research sampling methods are defined below. Purposive sampling is a non-probability (not non-probabilistic) sampling method where participants are deliberately chosen based on specific characteristics, knowledge, or experience that is relevant to the research question. Convenience sampling involves the selection of participants based on their accessibility or availability, without considering whether they are representative of the target population. Quota sampling is a non-probability sampling method that selects participants based on predefined quotas, aiming to ensure the representation of specific subgroups within the sample. Theoretical sampling is an iterative sampling method primarily used in grounded theory research, where participants are selected based on emerging concepts and categories, to develop and refine the emerging theory. Similarly, some quantitative research sampling methods are described below. Simple random sampling is a probability sampling method in which each member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected. This is one of the most commonly used sampling methods. Systematic sampling is a probability sampling method in which the researcher selects every nth member of the target population, starting from a randomly chosen point. Stratified random sampling is a probability sampling method that first divides the target population into homogeneous strata based on specific characteristics, then randomly selects participants from each stratum, ensuring that each stratum is proportionally represented. Cluster sampling is a probability sampling method where the target population is divided into non-overlapping clusters, and a random sample of clusters is selected. Participants are then chosen from the selected clusters, either randomly or through another sampling method. Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling technique in which the initial participants help recruit additional subjects from their social networks, often used when studying hard-to-reach or hidden populations. This is commonly used to describe the distribution of online surveys or questionnaires. Because this sampling technique is non-random, it is generally subject to bias.

sans serif a typeface with no serifs. Popular since the late 19th century, sans serif typefaces are considered more modern than serif typefaces.

search string a sequence of characters and spaces in the Find tool.

section a subdivision of a chapter.

semi-bold a typeface with strokes midway in thickness between ordinary roman and bold.

serif (1) a small terminal stroke at the top or end of a main stroke of a letter (see Figure); (2) the general category of typefaces that feature such strokes. Serif typefaces have a more traditional appearance than sans serif typefaces. See also sans serif.

set the width of a letter.

short-title system a system of bibliographical references that employs a shortened form of the book title after the first mention.

SI units (Système International d’Unités) the International System of Units, commonly known as the metric system, is the international standard for measurement. The seven SI base units, from which all other units are derived, are meter (m, length), second, (s, time), mole, (mol, amount of substance), ampere (A, electric current), kelvin (K, temperature), candela (cd, luminous intensity) and kilogram (kg, mass).

sibilant a consonant sound that hisses, like s, z, sh, zh, ch and j. Nouns that end in sibilants sometimes have special ways of forming plurals and possessives.

small caps (or small capitals) capital letters similar in weight and height to a lowercase x.

small type type smaller than body text size (but not as small as footnotes).

soft hyphen an end-of-line hyphen that occurs only when a word must be broken when printed on a set text-line measure. See also hard hyphen.

soft return a non-printing, end-of-line control code automatically inserted at the right margin in continuous text.

solid of type, set without additional space between the lines.

solidus (or slash or virgule) an oblique stroke: /.

spanner rule when a table has two levels of heading above the columns, a spanner rule is inserted above the group of lower-level headings covered by each upper-level heading.

special sort a generic name for a symbol or accented character.

standard deviation a measure of how much the individual values in a dataset deviate from the mean. A low standard deviation indicates that the values are closely clustered around the mean, while a high standard deviation indicates that the values are more widely dispersed. The standard deviation of a dataset is used in various statistical analyses to understand the variability of the data as well as to compare different datasets. See also mean.

statistical significance the likelihood that an observed relationship between variables or a difference between groups is not due to chance. It is very commonly used in statistical hypothesis testing and is calculated by comparing the p-value of a result to a predefined significance level. In general, all statistical tests must define a significance level, which refers to the threshold at which the researcher can accept or reject the hypothesis being tested. The significance level is always set before data collection and is generally set to 5%. For example, if the p-value of the data is less than 5%, this is usually reported as p < 0.05, suggesting that the effect being investigated is statistically significant based on the predefined significance level. However, different fields of study have different requirements—some fields require the significance level to be set much lower than 5%. In STEM fields, journals often require researchers to report the exact p-value rather than an approximate figure or threshold. Important: do not confuse the p-value of the dataset with the significance level (alpha; α). The p-value is the probability of obtaining results that are at least as extreme as the results that were actually observed based on the null hypothesis. If the p-value is less than the significance value (i.e., p < α), then the result is statistically significant (the smaller the p-value, the stronger the evidence against the null hypothesis—see also null hypothesis). As mentioned above, an overwhelming majority of researchers set α = 0.05, which is why the result p < 0.05 is very commonly reported.

stet an instruction that the characters in question are to remain unaltered or to be restored if already deleted or altered.

stub the left-hand column in a table, which identifies the rows in the same way as the column headings identify the columns.

style (1) house style; (2) the style governed by a particular style guide (e.g., APA style, Chicago style); (3) formatting characteristics applied to electronic text. Paragraph styles govern the appearance of a paragraph; character styles affect the text within a paragraph.

style guide (or style sheet) guidance for authors and editors on the preferred forms of text, such as variations in spelling, hyphenation, and capitalization, and the treatment of references, lists, quotations, and numbers.

subheading a heading to a section of a chapter or of a bibliography.

subject the star of a sentence. In active sentences, the subject is who or what performs the action (e.g., I walked the dog). In passive sentences, the subject is acted upon, often by an unnamed actor (e.g., the dog was taken for a walk).

subjunctive mood used when a verb expresses a wish (e.g., I wish you were here), a conditional statement that’s contrary to fact (e.g., if she were here) or a suggestion/demand (e.g., I insist you be there on time). The subjunctive mood affects subject–verb agreement in ways that often confound EFL speakers. Native English speakers usually apply it on the basis of a gut feeling and get it right about 98% of the time.

subscript (or inferior) a small letter or figure set beside and/or below the line. See also superscript.

subtitle an explanatory phrase forming the second part of a title.

superscript (or superior) a small letter or figure set above the line. See also subscript.

symposium (1) a conference; (2) a volume of papers presented at a conference.

systematic review a comprehensive, rigorous, and transparent research methodology that involves the identification, evaluation, synthesis, and presentation of all available evidence on a specific research question or topic. The primary aim is to minimise bias and provide an unbiased summary of the current literature by following a predefined protocol, which includes explicit criteria for study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment. Systematic reviews are often used in evidence-based practice and policymaking, and they play a crucial role in informing clinical guidelines, healthcare decisions, and research agendas. Systematic reviews are often (but not always) accompanied by meta-analyses to provide quantitative support for the conclusions of the review. See also meta-analysis.

table an arrangement of data in columns and rows.

template a file with predetermined formatting parameters.

tense the aspect of a verb that tells us when something is happening. Verbs always have a “when” built into them (e.g., the -ed in walked and the -ing in walking). See also verb.

TeX (or TEX) (pronounced “tech”) a typesetting programming language designed to enable keying of complicated mathematics. See also LaTeX.

text area (or type area) the part of the page in which the text and images of the book are accommodated; the area inside the margins.

text type the size of type in which the main (body) text is set.

theory a set of interconnected and logically consistent concepts, assumptions, and propositions that explain or predict relationships among variables, serving as a foundation or framework for additional research.

thin space a space that is around one-fifth of an em in width. It is used to add a narrow space, such as between nested quotation marks, or to separate glyphs that would otherwise interfere with one another. It is also used to separate numbers from SI units. In many countries, it acts as a thousands separator.

tilde the diacritical sign over an n in Spanish, Portuguese, etc., to indicate the sound ny, shown here: ñ; the sign is also used in mathematics.

tone the general character or attitude of a piece of writing; the mood or attitude implied by an author’s choice of words and the feeling conveyed by the piece of text. Blog posts tend to be informal in tone, while lawyers’ letters are formal and assertive. See also register.

tracking (or letter spacing) the uniform amount of spacing between characters in a complete section of text (sentence, line, paragraph, page, etc.).

transliterate to transcribe in letters of another alphabet.

transpose to change the order of letters, words, etc.

triangulation the use of multiple methods, theories, data sources, or perspectives to enhance the validity and reliability of research findings and conclusions. Triangulation is used to reduce the intrinsic biases in studies that revolve around a single theory. It is more common in the social sciences and is rarely used in STEM fields.

turned of a table or illustration, set so that its left-hand side is at the foot of the page.

turnovers (or turn-lines) (1) the second and subsequent lines of a paragraph, entry in an index, etc. Also used where a long line of verse runs over onto a second line. The term is used in phrases such as “indent turnovers by a half-inch”; (2) the last line of a paragraph.

type characters or letters that are printed or shown on a screen.

typeface originally the printing surface of a piece of metal type; hence the design of that surface; now the style of type selected: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, etc. A typeface comprises a family of fonts. See also font.

typography the style and appearance of published text.

Unicode an international encoding system by which each letter, digit and symbol is assigned a unique numeric value that applies across different platforms and programs.

unjustified lines with even word spacing and a ragged righthand edge. See also justified setting.

upper case capital letters as opposed to small letters (lower case).

URL (short for Uniform Resource Locator) the address of a resource on the Internet or of a file stored locally. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a web page, a text file, a graphics file or an application. The address contains three elements: the type of protocol used to access the file (e.g., HTTP for a web page, ftp for an FTP site); the domain name or IP address of the server where the file resides; and optionally, the pathname to the file (i.e., a description of the file’s location). Don’t enclose a URL in angle brackets; doing so can interfere with XML tagging.

utility a small, specialized program that performs a specific task, such as file compression/decompression.

validity the extent to which a measurement or instrument accurately measures what it is intended to measure, or the degree to which a study’s conclusions are well-founded and correspond to the true state of the world. In the context of computer science, validity also describes the generalisability of the predictive power of models (usually machine learning models) to datasets beyond the training data. See also external validity and internal validity.

Vancouver system a numbered referencing style commonly used in medicine and science, consisting of citations to someone else’s work in the text, indicated by the use of a number, and a sequentially numbered reference list at the end of the document providing full details of the corresponding in-text references. It follows rules established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, now maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It is also known as the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals.

variable a characteristic or attribute that can take on different numerical values (e.g., age or income), categories (e.g., gender or ethnicity), or even a Boolean value (True or False, such as employment status). Researchers seek to measure, manipulate, control, or predict these variables in their studies. See also dependent variable and independent variable.

variance a measure of how much the individual values in a dataset deviate from the mean. It is calculated by summing the differences between each term in the dataset and the mean, squaring the summed value, and dividing this value by the number of terms in the dataset. Notably, when calculating the population variance, you divide by the total number of terms; however, when calculating the sample variance, you divide by the total number of terms minus one. This is known as a “Bessel correction”. The variance is more easily manipulated algebraically compared to the standard deviation but has fewer practical applications because its units are not the same as the units of the dataset. See also standard deviation and mean.

verb an action word that tells us what’s happening. Verbs are called transitive when they need an object to make sense (Henry raises dahlias) and intransitive when they make sense without one (flowers die). Some verbs are both transitive and intransitive (she eats peas/let’s eat). See also mood and tense. Verbs are active when the action is performed by the subject (Henry raises dahlias) and passive when the subject is the recipient of the action (Dahlias are grown in rows). Verbs come in four principal forms: infinitive (grow), past tense (grew), past participle (grown), and present participle (growing). These are the building blocks of the various tenses. If you’re looking at a verb in a specific tense and can’t remember what the tense is called, look it up using the Reverso verb conjugator.

verso the left-hand page of a spread, having an even page number. See also recto.

virus a “bug” in computer hardware or software that corrupts a user’s data or, in extreme cases, causes total machine failure.

vowel a letter with a soft, open-mouthed sound: a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Note that u and eu can act like consonants, as in Europe and universe.

weight the relative darkness of the characters of a typeface or font resulting from the relative thickness of the strokes. Expressed as light, bold, extrabold, etc.

white line a line of space the same depth as a line of words.

widow the short last line of a paragraph at the top of a page, considered undesirable. Microsoft Word automatically controls for widows and orphans if instructed to do so.

word break (or word division) splitting a word at the end of a line because it will not fit in the remaining space.

word processor software that enables the user to create, edit, format, and print text. Most include page layout tools, but these are not as sophisticated as the layout tools in publishing programs.

word-wrap a computer word-processing function whereby a new line of text is started automatically when the existing line has insufficient space to contain a new word.

x-height the height of the letter x in a given typeface.

Sources

Butcher’s Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders (4th Edition, Kindle) | Judith Butcher, Caroline Drake and Maureen Leach

Garner’s Modern English Usage (5th edition) | Bryan A. Garner

New Hart’s Rules | Anne Waddingham

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage | Pam Peters

The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation | Bryan A. Garner

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English (4th Edition, Kindle) | Patricia T. O’Conner

Keen to more more about academic writing and editing? Read about how to use apostrophes correctly and how to use abbreviations correctly.