This article attempts to analyze foreword as a specifc text type by considering problems of its defnition, emphasizing its distinctive attributes and textual functions as well as reviewing possibilities of its further internal differentiation. Using the examples of two main genre types of forewords — literary and scientifc — the author approaches the task of creating corresponding prototypical models, which could be presented as sets of communicative units. The communicative unit of “addressing the reader” is being analyzed subsequently.