Text Production
material factors affecting the production, transmission, and reception of a text
Medium
- carved into wood or stone
- handwriting on leather, parchment, paper
- dictation to stenographer, amanuensis
- written with fountain pen
- typewriter [from late 19th C]
- dictaphone [from early 1900s]
- word-processor [from 1980]
- World Wide Web [from 1990]
Author
- legibility of handwriting
- spelling irregularities
- punctuation [subjective]
- revisions to draft
- multiple versions of a text
Compositor
- mis-readings of the text
- ‘regularisation’ of author’s spelling or punctuation
- commercial requirements of space
* in line with ‘house style’
* on compositor’s whim
Printer
- choice of typeface
- choice of font size
- page layout
- page size
- paper quality
- binding
Editor
- choice of copy text
- editorial policy on corrections, spelling, substantives and accidentals
Publisher
- paper and binding quality
- print run (number of copies)
- selling price
- number of editions
- advertising and promotion
Context
- genre (type) of publication
- its relation to others of its type
- social status of such publications
Audience
- readership and its expectations
- reader’s ‘purpose’
Reception
- Critical comment on the text
- ‘reputation’ of text
- context in which it is read
© Mantex 2008
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
