Talk:Exercise book

Australia
I don't want to see this article become a long list of countries (or, just as bad, a short unrepresentative list), so I have refrained from adding an "Australia" section to the main page. But for reference I'll add some notes about local usage here instead.

Size. Looking at a couple of dominant stationery chains (e.g. Officeworks) shows "9x7" and A4 as major categories. But my children in primary school use books that are slightly larger than A4 (and I think they are still called "exercise books" by the manufacturers, will check). The reason for the large size is so that they can paste laser-printed A4 worksheets into the book without folding. 9x7 in may in practice be 175×225; one brand has 176×250 (only one item of which is sold as B5). When I was in primary school in the 1970s to 1980s(!), 9x7 was the dominant format, and I recall seeing old schoolbooks of my mothers (1950s) that were a similar size.

Capacity. Often a wide range of page counts are available, such as 32, 48, 64, 92, 128, 192, and 240 pages.

Common form. In my experience, they generally have 8 mm line spacing with no pre-printed margins. But looking online I do see brands with a red left margin. Versions are available for younger pupils with wider-spaced lines or special handwriting guides (e.g. "dotted thirds"). The Queensland series have 24mm, 18mm, and 12mm lines for years 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Another brand has 12mm, 10mm, and 4mm lines. (If the lines in the 4mm book are evenly weighted, you could use it as double-ruled 8mm or triple-ruled 12mm. I haven't seen this type much in use, but I don't work in schools.)

Terminology and sub-types. Yep, we call them "exercise books". The quad-ruled books are sold as "grid books"; or as "graph books", which is something of a misnomer. "Botany books" have alternating lined and plain pages for illustrations and writing in a single spread. There were also "project books" with a blank space for illustration and a small lined section on the same page below, these are sometimes a larger format and might not be considered a type of exercise book. More specialized items such as sketchbooks and music manuscript books are not generally treated as types of exercise book.

There is some variation as to whether the A4-sized books are called exercise books or notebooks. ("Notebook" is used more than "note book"(?), or maybe that's just me.) A4 books that are drilled with holes for use in ring or lever-arch binders are sold as "binder books". The pages usually have margins and may be perforated for removal.

Pelagic (talk) 19:03, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

UK
A quick look at exercise books on WH Smith reveals sizes like 250x180, 202x164, and A5 210x150 mm (8 1/2 x 6 in). A5 seems to be more common, followed by 250x180.

Searching Amazon UK returns a lot of A4 and A5 books, though there is also Rhino F8M 9x7 (225x190) and Rhino F8M & F6M 200x165. The A5 books are more likely to be labeled "school exercise book" rather than just "exercise book".

Pelagic (talk) 21:15, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

USA
The US equivalent of "exercise book" appears to be the composition book.

OfficeMax / Office Depot website is down at the moment, but when I searched on Quill for exercise book I only got results like "Exercises in Spanish grammar" or books about physical exercise. In comparison, composition book returns 56 results, most of which match the description in the current article for composition book.

What strikes me as different about the US-style composition books is that they seem more heavily constructed, with sewn binding and "pressboard" cover. The exercise books I'm familiar with in Australia are often thinner, with the sizes up to 96 pages having a single fold and light cardboard cover held by metal staples. (Thicker items are generally sewn, but maybe the covers are still less heavy?.)

7+1/2x9+3/4 in seems to be a common US size, making them generally a little larger than the 7x9 size that is traditional here in Australia, but there is some variation. [Roaring Spring has both 7 × $8 1/2$ and $7 1/2$ × $9 3/4$, Ampad has $7 7/8$ × 10.]

Pelagic (talk) 02:53, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Khata
How common is the term khata? Is its use limited to a particular region or language group?

I found with some web searching mostly scarves (c.f. khata) and a couple of references to Bangalore property documents. Some stationery suppliers use the term "exercise book" but not "khata", others sell school writing pads (bound at the top, not side) but not exercise books (suggesting that the pad format is more common in some regions).

Searching for khata and exercise book together does produce some matches. For example the "New Calcutta Khata Store" that sells "exercise books" and "school notebooks".

Sorry I don't have links or quotes: my web browser reloaded the tab whilst I was writing this and I lost them all.

Pelagic (talk) 20:23, 26 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Okay, here are some links (not promoting any of these suppliers, just using them as examples)
 * http://www.schoolsupplies.co.in/?cat=20 "Ranging from notebooks to exercise books, our school notebooks are a perfect stationary item."
 * www. infibeam. com/school-supplies "School office writing pads" is a category, but can't find anything that looks like an exercise book.
 * http://www.indiamart.com/newcalcutta-khata-store/products.html
 * Indiamart has a category for exercise books but doesn't mention khata (even though that page came up in a search for "khata exercise book").
 * "Bashundhara Paper Mills Ltd. launched a Bashundhara-brand Khata (exercise book) with new cover featuring the Bangla New Year" &mdash; Bangladesh, office is in Dhaka.
 * Khata (Exercise Book) is a short story by Bengali Rabindranath Tagore. review, play

Alternate names
Thanks, User:TvojaStara for simplifying the alternate regional names. However it seems to me that many of these terms are not major enough to be included in the lead sentence.

Too often, due to the wide reach of the English language and the contributory process of Wikipedia, we end up with defining introductory sentences of the form
 * Blah, also called blah2, blah3, or blah4 in Lilliput, or blah5 in Brobdinag, is a something ... etc.

Sometimes this is unavoidable, such as when all terms are equally important, redirects are in place, or there is a history of moves and mergers.

From the India section above, khata doesn't appear to be the dominant term in Indian English.

I can't find version book in this sense on the modern web, thought it is attested around the 1900s to 1920s in Google Books Ngram.   The main hits appear to be from Robert Louis Stevenson. One is in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: "The book was an ordinary version-book and contained little but a series of dates." The other might be autobiographical: "when I sat by the roadside, I would either read, or a pencil and a penny version-book would be in my hand, to note down the features of the scene". Most of the other hits are false positives, like "such-and-such version, book 4".

The only term that redirects to exercise book is version book. Khata is the Tibetan scarf, and copy book goes to copybook. Scribbler is a disambig. page that references notebook rather than exercise book (scribbler means different things in different regions).

I hope nobody minds me moving the other names lower down the article. Please discuss below if you feel there are alternate terms that do belong in the defining sentence.

Pelagic (talk) 23:49, 27 December 2015 (UTC)