Foreword - wikipedia Foreword Not to be confused with the relative direction of `` forward ''. For other uses, see Foreword ( disambiguation ). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2012 ) The foreword to Men I Have Painted, by John McLure Hamilton ; 1921 Foreword, to a 1900 book in German A foreword is a ( usually short ) piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book 's primary author or the story the book tells. Later editions of a book sometimes have a new foreword prepended ( appearing before an older foreword if there was one ), which might explain in what respects that edition differs from previous ones. When written by the author, the foreword may cover the story of how the book came into being or how the idea for the book was developed, and may include thanks and acknowledgments to people who were helpful to the author during the time of writing. Unlike a preface, a foreword is always signed. Information essential to the main text is generally placed in a set of explanatory notes, or perhaps in an introduction, rather than in the foreword or preface. The pages containing the foreword and preface ( and other front matter ) are typically not numbered as part of the main work, which usually uses Arabic numerals. If the front matter is paginated, it uses lowercase Roman numerals. If there is both a foreword and a preface, the foreword appears first ; both appear before the introduction, which may be paginated either with the front matter or the main text. The word foreword was first used around the mid-17th century, originally as a term in philology. It was possibly a calque of German Vorwort, itself a calque of Latin praefatio. See also Look up foreword in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Forewords. Afterword Epigraph Introduction Preface Prologue References Jump up ^ Pope, Geoff ( 18 November 2010 ). `` '' Foreword '' Versus `` Forward '' ``. Grammar Girl 's Quick and Dirty Tips. Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Retrieved 10 August 2012. External links The difference between a preface, foreword, and introduction -- PatMcNees.com Book design General page layout and typography choices Fonts Front and back covers Buckram Leather Anthropodermic bibliopegy Treasure binding Endpapers Marbled Front matter Half title bastard title Frontispiece Title page Edition notice Dedication Epigraph Table of contents List of figures List of tables Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Prologue Printer 's mark Body matter, which may include : Body text Chapters Parts Sections Tipped - in pages Back matter Afterword Conclusion Epilogue Outro Postscript Appendix / Addendum Glossary Bibliography Index Errata Colophon Postface Other elements Bookplate or ex-librīs Catchword Die cutting Fore - edge painting Pop - ups Thumb index Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foreword&oldid=840557014 '' Categories : Book design Book terminology Literature Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from August 2012 All articles needing additional references Talk About Wikipedia تۆرکجه Català Español Euskara فارسی Français Frysk 한국어 Ido Italiano עברית ಕನ್ನಡ Magyar Nederlands Português Română Русский සිංහල Svenska தமிழ் Türkçe Українська 14 more Edit links This page was last edited on 10 May 2018, at 17 : 13. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what is the purpose of the forward of a book
Answer: tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells