{{Short description|Subdivision of a chapter}} {{Redirect|Section break|the term's use in overhead lines|Overhead lines#Breaks}}
[[File:Section_break_01_by_Pengo.jpg|thumb|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 books and documents, a '''section''' is a subdivision, especially of a chapter.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-10-27 |title=Definition of SECTION |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/section |access-date=2024-11-03 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Section Definition & Meaning {{!}} Britannica Dictionary |url=https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/section |access-date=2024-11-03 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
In fiction, sections often represent scenes, and accordingly the space separating them is sometimes also called a '''scene break'''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williamson |first=Jill |title=Section Breaks vs. Scene Breaks {{!}} Go Teen Writers |url=https://goteenwriters.com/2012/10/02/section-breaks-vs-scene-breaks/ |access-date=2024-11-03 |language=en-US}}</ref> Scene breaks represent gaps in story time that do not correspond to discourse time, and thus reveal the story-discourse distinction.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shen |first=Dan |date=2003 |title=What Do Temporal Antinomies Do to the Story-Discourse Distinction?: A Reply to Brian Richardson's Response |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/42268 |journal=Narrative |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=237–241 |doi=10.1353/nar.2003.0010 |issn=1538-974X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In law, sections are divisions of legislation that may be deeply nested to as little as single sentences.<ref name="Bruce-2008" />
==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''.<ref name="Bruce-2008">{{Cite web |last=Bruce |first=Thomas Robert |date=2008-08-29 |title=Section identifiers (LII) |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/wiki/lexcraft/section_identifiers_lii |access-date=2024-11-03 |website=LII / Legal Informtion Institute |language=en}}</ref> The symbol {{char|§}} (section sign) prefixed to a number indicates that it is the number of a section detailed elsewhere.<ref name="Standler">{{cite web | title = Legal Research and Citation Style in USA |first=Ronald M. |last=Standler | url = http://www.rbs0.com/lawcite.htm#anchor333333 | year = 2004 | access-date = 2009-12-15}}</ref>
The dotted-decimal section-numbering scheme commonly used in scientific and technical documents is defined by International Standard ISO 2145.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kowalski |first=E. |date=3 June 2008 |title=Peano paragraphing |url=https://blogs.ethz.ch/kowalski/2008/06/03/peano-paragraphing/ |access-date=3 November 2024 |website=blogs.ethz.ch}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=6937 |title=International Standard ISO 2145:1978, Documentation{{snd}} Numbering of divisions and subdivisions in written documents |publisher =International Organization for Standardization |location =Geneva}} (paywalled)</ref>
==In HTML== The <code><nowiki><section></nowiki></code> tag may be used in semantic HTML to mark part of a webpage as a section.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-01 |title=The Generic Section element - HTML: HyperText Markup Language {{!}} MDN |url=https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/section |access-date=2024-11-03 |website=developer.mozilla.org |language=en-US}}</ref>
The <code><nowiki><hr/></nowiki></code> element originally represented a page-width horizontal rule, and now has the semantics of a "paragraph-level thematic break" which may be rendered in various ways.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 October 2012 |title=hr – thematic break (CHANGED) - HTML5 |url=https://w3c.github.io/html-reference/hr.html |access-date=2026-02-04 |website=HTML: The Markup Language (an HTML language reference)--W3C Working Draft}}</ref> In the Wikipedia markup language, it is represented as <code><nowiki>{{Hr}}</nowiki></code> and renders like this: <blockquote>''previous section''{{Hr}}''following section''</blockquote>
==See also== * Asterism {{char|⁂}} * Dinkus {{char|{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}*{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}*{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}*{{nbsp}}{{nbsp}}}} * Fleuron (typography) {{char|❦}} * Section (bookbinding) * Paragraph * Paragraphos
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Book structure}}
Category:Writing Category:Book design Category:Book terminology Category:Publishing Category:Typography