I've been trying to understand John Steel's various notes on inner model theory, but the one thing that trips me up is what he calls the well-founded part of a model of set theory. What exactly is the well-founded part of a model? If someone could give me a precise definition (maybe it can be defined using transitive closures, but I don't really know) of the well-founded part of a model, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Addendum
The well-foundedness that I'm referring to is not the internal well-foundedness that comes from assuming the Axiom of Regularity within the model. It's an external property, as viewed from outside the model.