Description of Section and Article elements

So this is just a matter of clarification. I’ve been working on the HTML/CSS module for the past couple of weeks and am really enjoying the experience so far. I think most of the concepts, when first introduced, are thoroughly explained and then applied in subsequent lessons. But re-reading the “Learn Applied Accessibility: Wrap Content in the article Element” lesson, this paragraph is confusing me:

The section element is also new with HTML5, and has a slightly different semantic meaning than article . An article is for standalone content, and a section is for grouping thematically related content. They can be used within each other, as needed. For example, if a book is the article , then each chapter is a section . When there’s no relationship between groups of content, then use a div .

So how should I be parsing this? I feel like a book is better described as a section because you’re grouping chapters, which are articles that “stand alone.” Right? Can someone help? Haha

No, books are divided into sections, which are normally called chapters. You don’t generally call a book an “article”, but it’s what it is in this slightly strained analogy. A news report or an essay in a newspaper is a more obvious example, because the terminology is the same: an article would be divided into sections.

Well I don’t think it’s more obvious as much as it is more appropriate. Thanks for the reply.

There’s no reason why sections can’t contain articles btw (which can then have sections, maybe with articles in!), just to complicate things

1 Like