Selecting texts

A number of features in texts can be used to determine the suitability of a text, and to decide how we might use it. For example, think of how we might use headings, content pages, indexes, bibliographies, dates of publication, and other parts of a text to make predictions about possible content and relevance.

Other factors such as fonts, use of pictures, headings and sub-headings, sentence complexity, paragraph length, and indeed any other factors we care to think of, can suggest something to us about:

• the nature of the text
• its intended audience
• its level of complexity
• its organisation of information etc.

and therefore suggest how useful or relevant it might be for us.