Section (typography)

"Section break" redirects here. For the term's use in overhead lines, see Overhead lines § Breaks.

In books and documents, a section is a subdivision, especially of a chapter.^[1][2]

Open pages of the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, showing an ornate section break on the lower left page created from asterisks. It is used to signal a pause for the reader and a transition in the narrative.

In fiction, sections often represent scenes, and accordingly the space separating them is sometimes also called a scene break.^[3] Scene breaks represent gaps in story time that do not correspond to discourse time, and thus reveal the story-discourse distinction.^[4]

Section form and numbering

Some documents, especially legal documents, may have numbered sections, such as Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or Internal Revenue Code section 183. Section identifiers may have both uppercase and lowercase letters.^[5]

The dotted-decimal section-numbering scheme commonly used in scientific and technical documents^[6] is defined by International Standard ISO 2145.^[7]

Flourished section breaks

The <section> tag may be used in semantic HTML to mark part of a webpage as a section.^[8]

See also

• Asterism ⁂
• Dinkus   *   *   *  
• Fleuron (typography) ❦
• Section sign §
• Section (bookbinding)
• Paragraph
• Paragraphos