Book Structure Assignment

INLS 180

 

Choose a book of your choice.  Consider how this book is structured.  Since the "communication" from author to reader is static in representation, the physical format/structure  influences the "meaning" the reader constructs from the book.  The structure will be based on cultural practice that contextualizes the work in time and space.   The overall structure is made up of various elements (e.g., title, preface, forward, table of contents, index, chapters, sections, subsections, quotations, footnotes, endnotes, figures, tables, etc.).  For each of the elements of your book, invent a tag (e.g., TI=title).  Use your tagging scheme to describe the structure of the book

 

For example:

TI

TC

PR

CH

      QU

      SE1

           TX

           FN

                  SE2

                        TX

                  SE2

      SE1

NO

CH

.

.

.

etc…

In this example, TI=title, TC=table of contents, PR=preface, CH=chapter heading, QU=quotation, SE1=first level section heading, TX=text, FN=footnote, SE2=second level section heading, NO=notes.  This example shows that chapter begins with a quote, has two levels of hierarchy and that the book has notes at the end of chapters rather than end of book.

 

Give brief responses for the following.

 

1.      What does this structural ‘view’ of the book communicate?

2.      Could your scheme be automated (automatically tagged)?

3.      If the book were an electronic book, list TWO new features/capabilities that could be added.  What tags would you assign to these new features?