All Topics  
Preface

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Preface
 
 
  Topics Preface Topic Home

A preface (pronounced "preffus") is an introduction to a book written by the author of the book. An introductory essay written by a different person is a foreword
Foreword

A foreword is a piece of writing often found at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature, before the introduction , and written by someone other than the author of the book....
 and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes with acknowledgements of those who assisted in the project.

A preface generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or how the idea for the book was developed; this is often followed by thanks and acknowledgments to people who were helpful to the author during the time of writing.

A preface is usually signed (and the date and place of writing often follow the typeset signature); a foreword by another person is always signed.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Preface'
Start a new discussion about 'Preface'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A preface (pronounced "preffus") is an introduction to a book written by the author of the book. An introductory essay written by a different person is a foreword
Foreword

A foreword is a piece of writing often found at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature, before the introduction , and written by someone other than the author of the book....
 and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes with acknowledgements of those who assisted in the project.

A preface generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or how the idea for the book was developed; this is often followed by thanks and acknowledgments to people who were helpful to the author during the time of writing.

A preface is usually signed (and the date and place of writing often follow the typeset signature); a foreword by another person is always signed. Information essential to the main text is generally placed in a set of explanatory notes, or perhaps in an "Introduction" that may be paginated with Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals

The 'arabic numerals', or 'Hindu numerals' are the ten digits , which?along with Decimal Number System by which a sequence was read as a number?were originally defined by Indian mathematics, later modified and transferred to North African Islamic mathematics and transmitted to Europe in the Middle Ages, whence they spread around the wo...
, rather than in the preface. The term preface can also mean any preliminary or introductory statement. It is sometimes abbreviated pref.

Similarly, a prologue
Prologue

Prologue , or prolog, is a preferred piece of writing. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance, embracing any kind of preface, like the Latin praefatio....
 is typically an introduction to a novel, fitting in with the genre and storyline of the main text, rather than a section in the author's voice.

Preface comes from the Latin, meaning either "spoken before" (prae + fatia) or "made before" (prae + factum). While the former source of the word could have preface meaning the same as prologue, the latter strongly implies an introduction written before the body of the book. With this meaning of stated intention, British publishing up to at least the middle of the twentieth century distinguished between preface and introduction.

Image



German Punk-Rock Band. http://www.myspace.com/prefaceband

Further reading

  • A history of the preface in several languages is contained in Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. The Social Dimensions of Fiction: On the Rhetoric and Function of Prefacing Novels in the Nineteenth-Century Canadas. Braunschweig-Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher (Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn), 1993.