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Terminology
- Contributor
- A person (or organization) whose efforts shaped the work.
- Contributors are usually authors and translators. Publishers and printers are not considered to be contributors.
- Gender
- A modern categorization of a person based on perceived social-biological identity.
- For example, we have categorized Aphra Behn as a person of “female” gender. However, this is a modern guess at Behn’s perceived gender identity. The concepts of “sex” and “gender” are deeply personal, and they shift over time. As such, one should treat our categorization of historical individuals with a grain of salt.
- Topic, or genre
- A categorization of a work based on its apparent contents.
- Inscription
- Writing carved onto an object or building.
- Agriculture
- Works about farming.
- Anthropology
- Works on the study of human cultures.
- Architecture
- Works about constructing buildings.
- Art criticism
- Commentaries and studies of artistic works.
- Autobiography
- Accounts of the authors’ lives.
- Biography
- Accounts of the lives of notable persons.
- Botany
- Works on the study of plants.
- Childcare
- Works about childcare.
- Children’s literature
- Works intended for a young audience.
- Chorography
- Written descriptions of regions.
- Classical
- Works of classical antiquity, usually Greek or Latin.
- Classical music
- Comedy
- Humorous dramatic works.
- Compendium
- Collections of selected works.
- Conduct manual
- Works intended to instruct on social mores.
- Cookbook
- Collections of recipes.
- Current affairs
- Works participating in the discourse of their times.
- Diary
- Records of daily life.
- Drama
- Plays and theater productions.
- Economics
- Works on money and accounting.
- Education
- Works on the subject of education.
- Essay
- Works which construct and present arguments.
- Ethics
- Works about moral philosophy.
- Ethnography
- Works which make claims about people of different cultural groups.
- Fictional
- Fictional works.
- Folk song
- Songs handed down in oral tradition.
- Folktale
- Stories handed down in oral tradition.
- Gardening
- Works about gardening.
- Works which make claims about people of a gender.
- Gender-addressed
- Works intended to be read by people of a gender identity.
- Geography
- Works on the subject of geography.
- Geology
- Works on the study of rocks and minerals.
- History
- Works which trace events and changes over time.
- Humor
- Light-hearted works and levities.
- Hymn
- Songs of devotion and praise, usually religious.
- Instructional
- Works intended to educate on a subject.
- Legal writing
- Laws and works about legal systems.
- Letter
- Correspondence.
- Linguistics
- Works on the study of languages.
- Literary criticism
- Commentaries and studies of literature.
- Literary periodical
- Masque
- Dramatic works intended for a courtly audience.
- Mathematics
- Works on the subject of mathematics.
- Medicine
- Works on the subject of medicine.
- Miscellany
- Collections of various works.
- Moral instruction
- Works intended to teach morality.
- Natural philosophy
- Works on the study of nature.
- Novel
- Book-length works of fiction.
- Occult
- Works about the supernatural.
- Opera
- Musical dramas.
- Other fiction
- Uncategorized fiction.
- Other nonfiction
- Uncategorized nonfiction.
- Petition
- Formal requests to authorities.
- Philosophy
- Poetry
- Political writing
- Prefatory piece
- Introductions, dedications, and other material appearing before a main work.
- Psychology
- Works on the study of the human mind.
- Reference
- Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other works intended for consultation.
- Sacred text
- Works of religious importance.
- Scientific writing
- Slavery
- Works about slavery.
- Song
- Speech
- Theology
- Works on the subject of religion.
- Tragedy
- Dramatic works with a focus on human suffering.
- Travel writing
- Uncategorized periodical
- Uncategorized periodicals.
- Unknown
- No other tag is appropriate, likely because we don’t have enough information for classification.
- Visual art
- Warfare
- Works on the subject of warfare.
- Zoology
- Works on the study of animals.
- Identifier, or ID
- A string of text which refers specifically to a single entity. Identifiers are used in links and pointers.
- For example, the bibliography entry for Much Ado about Nothing has the identifier “IT00691”.
- Intertextual gesture, or gesture
- A reference to, or marked engagement with, another work.
- Types of intertextual gestures:
- Adaptation
- A quote, intentionally modified from the referenced work.
- Encoded in WWO as a
quote type="adaptation".
- Advertisement
- A notice of a published work. Advertisements are usually placed by printers and publishers, not the WWO authors.
- Encoded in WWO as a
title or bibl within advertisement.
- Citation
- A prose description of the referenced work.
- Encoded in WWO as a
bibl.
- Parody
- A quote which has been modified for ironic effect.
- Encoded in WWO as a
quote type="parody".
- Remix
- A combination of extracts, rearranged and adapted from the referenced work.
- Encoded in WWO as a
quote type="remix".
- Quote
- A faithful extract from the referenced work.
- Encoded in WWO as a
quote.
- Title
- A name of the work.
- Proper titles are encoded as a
title in WWO. Other names of works are marked with rs type="title" instead. When written alongside chapter and verse information, books of the Bible are usually not marked by title but are instead contained inside WWP custom element regMe.
- Referenced work
- A work which has been utilized in an intertextual gesture within a source text.
- Publication date
- The year when the work was released.
- When possible, the publication date reflects the earliest edition of the work.
- Publication location
- The place where the work was printed and sold.
- Publisher
- The funder, seller, and/or distributor of a work.
- Related entry
- A bibliography entry which is distinct from a different entry, but which shares a common origin.
- Usually used to link notable variations on a work.
- Source text, or source
- The work in which an intertextual gesture appears. All source texts have been published in Women Writers Online.
- Work
- A human creation. While many are books, works may also be songs, art pieces, serial publications, inscriptions, etc.
- WWO author, or textbase author
- A contributor, usually female, who substantially shaped the source text.