What is a postface?

Sometimes general information about a book and the people for whom it was written is at the back of the book in a postface.

A postface replaces a preface and includes the same information. Only the location of the information in the book is different.

Here are some reasons to put information in a postface

• Some countries or publishers require certain information to be placed at the back of a publication.
• The information may not be important to most readers.
• The information may be printed in a language which most readers do not understand, such as the national language.
• A preface may be disruptive to the flow of the book's contents.

A postface is a brief article or explanatory information placed at the end of a publication.

• Putting together a book
• What is front and back matter?

• Concept module: postface
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): P
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998

© 1999 SIL International