Glossary / 449rising action in a play, novel, short story, and so on, the building action that
occurs from the beginning of the work until its climax.
Roman numeral the Roman system of letters used as numerals: I = 1, V = 5,
X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, and M = 1,000.
rough draft an early version of a paragraph or multi-paragraph paper prior to
revising and proofreading.
run-on sentence two main clauses improperly joined. Example: We ate too
much we got sick (run-on sentence). We ate too much, so we got sick (corrected).
script the text of a play or movie. [See Chapter 37, Scripts.]
secondary research research examining previously published findings. Compare
with primary research. [See Chapter 34, Research Paper.]
semicolon a mark of punctuation (;) showing more separation than a comma
and less than a period; usually used between certain closely related independent
clauses. Example: The door slammed shut; she was locked out. [See Chapter 45,
Punctuation.]
sentence a word or group of words that states, asks, commands, or exclaims
something, usually has a subject and predicate and which, in writing, begins with
a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark. [See
Writing Sentences in Chapter 2, Writing.]
sentence outline an outline that states topics and subtopics in complete sen-
tences. [See Chapter 31, Outlines.] Note: Sentence outlines should maintain paral-
lel structure.
sentence structure the relation of phrases, clauses, and sentence parts within a
sentence. [See Writing Sentences in Chapter 2, Writing.]
series a number of similar grammatical structures appearing consecutively. [See
Chapter 45, Punctuation, for punctuating items in a series.]
setting the time, place, and environment of an event, story, play, and so on.
shifts, confusing an unwarranted change of tense or viewpoint within a given
segment of writing.
short answer a brief response to a test question, job application question, or col-
lege or scholarship application question. [See Chapter 38, Short Answers.]
similarities-differences pattern of organization a means of organizing a
comparison-and-contrast paper in which all similarities are discussed in one part
and all differences discussed in another. [See Chapter 8, Comparison and Contrast.]
simile a figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another, using the
word like or as. Example: His muscles were as loose as last year’s slingshot.
Compare with metaphor.
simple sentence a single main clause without any subordinate clauses.
Example: The boy in the red shirt won the race without difficulty.