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This quasi-experimental study seeks to improve the conceptual quality of lesson summary essays by comparing two conditions, essay prompts with or without a list of concepts from the lesson. It is assumed that these terms can be used as “anchors” while writing. Participants (n = 90) in an Architectural Engineering undergraduate course over a two week period read the assigned textbook chapter and attended lectures and labs, then in the final lab session were asked to write a 300-word summary of the lesson content. Data for analysis consists of these essays and the end-of-unit multiple choice test. Compared to the expert essay benchmark, the essay networks of those receiving the list of terms in the writing prompt were not significantly different from those who did not receive the terms, but however were significantly more like peers essay networks, the network of the Chapter 11 PowerPoint lecture, and the network of the Chapter 9 PowerPoint lecture. In addition those receiving the list of terms in the writing prompt performed significantly better on the end-of-unit test than those not receiving the terms. Term frequency analysis indicates that only the most network central terms in the terms list showed a greater frequency in essays, the other terms frequencies were remarkably the same for both the Term and No Terms groups, suggesting a similar underlying conceptual mental model of this lesson content. More research is needed to understand how including concept terms in a writing prompt influences essay conceptual structure and test performance.