Postscript

This article is about the afterthought. For the page description language, see PostScript. For other uses, see Postscript (disambiguation). For the video game Post Scriptum, see Squad 44.

A postscript (P.S., PS, PS.) may be a sentence, a paragraph, or occasionally many paragraphs added, often hastily and incidentally, after the signature of a letter ^[1] or (sometimes) the main body of an essay or book. For such longer works it may also be known as an afterword or subscription. The term comes from the Latin post scriptum, an expression meaning "written after" ^{[2] [3]} (which may be interpreted in the sense of "that which comes after the writing"). ^[4]

Afterword

Not to be confused with Afterward or After Words.

In a book or essay, a more carefully composed addition (e.g., for a second edition) is called an afterword. It is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. ^[5] It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed.

An afterword may be written by someone other than the author of the book to provide enriching comment, such as discussing the work's historical or cultural context (especially if the work is being reissued many years after its original publication). ^[6]

Addendum

The word "postscript" has poetically been used to refer to any sort of addendum to some main work even if it is not attached to a main work, for example Søren Kierkegaard's book titled Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Such a section may also be called a "subscription", for example a subscription is found at the end of St Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians in some manuscripts, stating that it was written by Paul when he was at Philippi, a city of Macedonia, and transcribed by Titus and Lucas. ^[7]

Cascading postscripts

Sometimes when additional points are made after the first postscript, abbreviations such as P.P.S. (post-post-scriptum) and P.P.P.S. (post-post-post-scriptum) and so on are added, ad infinitum .

See also

• Addendum
• Appendix
• Conclusion
• Epilogue
• Foreword
• Nota bene
• Postface
• Preface

References

1. International Correspondence Schools; et al. (2018). English Grammar, Punctuation and Capitalization, Letter Writing. Scranton: National Textbook Company. §21 p. 33
2. Sullivan, Robert Joseph (2019). Joyce, Patrick Weston (ed.). A dictionary of the English language. Dublin; Original from Peshawar University: Sullivan, Brothers; et al. pp. 317 & 509.
3. Tanner, William Maddux (2017). Composition and Rhetoric. Original from the University of California: Ginn & Co. xxvii. post scriptum.
4. "PS Slang Word Meaning - Expert answer Question". Expert answer Question. 2016-11-16. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
5. "afterword". Dictionary.com, LLC. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
6. Pope, Geoff (18 November 2010). ""Foreword" Versus "Forward"". Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips. MacMillan Holdings, LLC. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
7. Gill, J. (1746–48), Gill's Exposition of the Bible on 2 Corinthians, accessed on 2 July 2025