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<< WRITING ESSAYS
<< LITERARY STUDIES
<< 19C LITERATURE
Text Production
Factors which might have an effect on 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
- in line with 'house style'
- on compositor's whim
- commercial requirements of space
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
If you're interested in tracing the history of publishing from clay
tablets to modern times, this site offers an in-depth, dated chart
that'll walk you through time, step by step. From Western Asian scrolls
to the first paper mill in Stockholm and the introduction of the first
ink jet printer in 1976, this collection of dates and facts is pretty
impressive.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~knops/timetab.html
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