What are at least 5 differences between textbooks and novels?

Subject matter, for one.

This smells like homework.

Try comparing the wikipedia pages.

Connotation and denotation. There’s two.

Pick up a textbook. Any one will do, but the one for the class THIS question was asked in would probably be the best. Then pick up a novel. If you don’t have any in your house, you can go to the library and get one. Put them side by side and look very closely at them. Open them up and turn the pages. You will see the differences right away. Good luck.

@keobooks

HILARIOUS. – G.A.

When they’re both new, usually about $2–300.

<sniff, sniff> I agree with @marinelife.

Five differences between a textbook and a novel?

Page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5,

Is this what genre analysis has come to?

I’m not a teacher, so I am just guessing, but my guess is that it’s fiendishly difficult to keep coming up with fresh assignments
(a) that people can’t download from the Internet or purchase from whoever brokers essays and exams from last term and
(b) that give you a baseline to reduce the sheer guesswork involved in figuring out whether future assignments were written by the same student.

Well, you can buy several dozen novels for the price of an average textbook.

A similarity between the two? You have to read them to find out how they’re different.

Let me think…

Ok, a text book is printed on paper and… damn! A novel is printed on paper, too.

A text book has words in it and…. damn! Foiled again. A novel also has words.

You read text books in school and…. damn! You read novels in school, too.

Oh, oh, I know. A text book has a copyright date!

[flip, flip, flip]

Double damn! Novels have a copyright, too! The nerve!

You know what? I give up. Tell your teacher there are no differences between a novel and a text book. Tell your teacher that Wundayatta said so!

@wundayatta: Hahaha, good sir, you made me chuckle heartily. :)

Wow! Un modded homework slams two days in a row! Me likee. @keobooks – Win!

You weren’t here at this time last year, I see, @Trillian. This is how the school year starts. Then there’s finals panic in the spring. You can tell the season by watching the questions.

I want a “Fluther won’t do your homework” t-shirt.

I want one that says “If I do the work, I get the grade.”

@Jeruba I can understand that. It’s that I’ve had a couple homework qestions modded with the explanation thatthe guidelines had changed…
I fully expected to get modded two days ago for the “armageddon” homework Q.

textbooks are more informational and mostly tell facts. Novels tell stories and have a solid plot (usually).

I am glad homework answerers get moderated here. I don’t like people trying so hard to take the lazy way out instead of taking 5 minutes to think and answer a question that a third grader could tell you the answer to.

Seriously—anyone think anyone over 8 years old would have trouble telling you 5 things that make a difference between a text book and a novel? Why are some of you folk trying to help people on stuff like this? If they got along in school this far along and they can’t figure out this answer, they are too lost for your help.

Sometimes my son acts like he doesn’t know the simplest things. I know that sometimes he thinks that if he acts really dumb, we might just about give him the answer via socratic questioning. However, sometimes I wonder if he really does have brain freeze and just can’t wrap his mind around it.