What is a Table of Contents?

The table of contents is a list of topics that the book will cover as well as other sections the book may contain such as a glossary or an index. The table of contents is found at the beginning of the book and is useful for finding a specific bit of information, as well as helping the reader remember where they left off the last time they were reading the book.


A table of contents can be very helpful for you as the reader to find what you are looking for in a book or any type of publication. Almost any type of publication is going to have a table of contents, so you can count on being able to use one.

A table of contents is usually structured like this: First, it will have any introductory information at the top, like the preface and introduction. That will be on the left side. On the right side it will have the page numbers. With the preface and introduction, many times it’ll have it in Roman numerals. Once you get to the actual meat of the book, the chapters, you’re going to have page numbers there. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, so on and so forth.

Sometimes they will actually have the name of the chapter (if the chapter has a title). For Chapter 1 it might have “Page 1”, and then for Chapter 2 it might have “Page 17”. This is what a table of contents would look like with the introductory material at the top, generally with Roman numerals, then the meat of the book in the middle in chronological order as you move throughout the book. Chapter 1 comes first, then Chapter 2, etc. all the way throughout the book with the page numbers to the right. A table of contents can be very helpful, so be sure to use them.

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by Mometrix Test Preparation | This Page Last Updated: February 24, 2022