This sample is a part of Unit 2-
Easy-to-understand language
Element 5- Visual presentation of Easy-to-understand language.
Paratextual sample.
This is a paratextual sample
in context of Easy-to-understand language:
A book in Easy language.
Paratextual elements
accompany, support, or inframe
the main text of the publication.
In this sample,
we present some of the elements
and their importance for Easy language texts.
Front cover.
Generally, book covers are very important.
This is even more true
when the books are targeted towards
readers of Easy language.
The title must appear clear from a short distance.
The use of colors and the cover illustration
could either attract or turn away the reader,
which is not insignificant
since end-users of Easy language
are sometimes inexperienced readers
or have had bad books-related personal experience.
Similarly to testing the main text and illustrations,
Easy language books front covers benefit
from careful validations with the end-users.
The book in the picture is marked
with the Inclusion Europe Easy-to-read logo
which indicates the book is written in Easy language,
in this case Easy Slovene.
The reader does not have to search
inside the book to obtain this information.
Layout.
The layout of the text inside the book
is simple and clear,
the page ‘’breathes’’ and the information
does not appear ‘’suffocating’’.
The text is aligned left,
the lines and paragraphs
have bigger spacing than usual.
The font is larger than in regular texts.
Easy language opts for sans serif.
Author.
The information about the author
is considered a paratextual element, too.
For this book, the artist drew
an image of the author.
The priestly frock indicates the man’s profession
and the face with many wrinkles and fine white hair
indicate he lived a long life.
Below the image,
the year of his birth and the year of his death are written down.
Headings and subheadings.
Headings in Easy language publications
are characteristically simple,
clear and indicative. You might find a lot more subheadings in an Easy language text,
as it is helpful to indicate or summarize
the content of the upcoming paragraph or chapter.
Illustrations.
Easy language texts are very often
accompanied by illustrations, such as photos or drawings.
The illustrations are not meant to decorate the text
but to add additional or standalone information.
Regardless, the illustrations can be masterfully done.
They should never be childish or demeaning.
Position of illustrations.
The illustrations in Easy language texts
are positioned alongside the text they accompany.
This is not necessarily true for standard texts
where the illustrations, if any,
can be randomly distributed throughout the publications.
Appendix.
Appendixes can be very useful in Easy language texts.
We might want to put a short dictionary of hard to understand words there
or, as in this case,
summarize basic information
about the characters from the book.
The readers can learn about them beforehand
or solidify their knowledge and memory during or after the reading session.
You may have noticed that we avoid footnotes
in Easy language and Easy-to-understand texts.
If you wish to provide the reader with additional information,
you may want to add that information to the main text,
add a special paragraph
or make an appendix.
The sample in this video is from
Easy Slovene novel adaptation Pod svobodnim soncem by Fran Saleški Finžgar,
published by Zavod RISA in 2015.
The illustrations are the work of Ciril Horjak.