More Rhetorical Analysis Novel Covers

“A personal document of aching clarity… A beautiful, painful book.” –New York Times Book Review The publishers want you to buy this book. Analyze the rhetorical strategies they are using to sell this book. 1.What is the style of the words and how do they help create a tone? Consider font as well as content. 2.What audience are they trying to reach? Consider the picture as well as the words. 3.What message is put out by this book cover? i.e. What is this book about?

The publishers want you to buy this book. Analyze the rhetorical strategies they are using to sell this book. 1.What is the style of the words and how do they help create a tone? Consider font as well as content. 2.What audience are they trying to reach? Consider the picture as well as the words. 3.What message is put out by this book cover? i.e. what is this book about? “An absolutely unique work: richly literary, yet urgent and politically explosive at the same time….A permanent testament to human courage and transcendence”

The publishers want you to buy this book. Analyze the rhetorical strategies they are using to sell this book. 1.What is the style of the words and how do they help create a tone? Consider font as well as content. 2.What audience are they trying to reach? Consider the picture as well as the words. 3.What message is put out by this book cover? i.e. what is this book about? “Tragic and comic at the same time…an outrageous story, one that will break your heart” –Sunday Independent “2 million copies sold”

The publishers want you to buy this book. Analyze the rhetorical strategies they are using to sell this book. 1.What is the style of the words and how do they help create a tone? Consider font as well as content. 2.What audience are they trying to reach? Consider the picture as well as the words. 3.What message is put out by this book cover? i.e. what is this book about? “A splendid autobiography …refreshingly open and generous” -Entertainment Weekly

These are your choices for our class novel. You have only one week from today to give me your top two choices. Most likely you will get your first choice, but I cannot guarantee it. Always Running: Rodriguez shares stories about his life in LA street gangs and how he made it out. If I Die…:O’Brien tells the story of his tour in Vietnam as a drafted soldier opposed to the war. The Glass Castle: Walls details her life of poverty, her dysfunctional family, and their many adventures and misfortunes. Fun Home: Bechdel relates the story of her childhood with a perfectionist father who revealed to her that he was gay only months before (maybe) committing suicide.

My Advice for Choosing a Novel Go to a library or bookstore and read the first three pages of a couple novels you are interested in. If you like them, make them your first and second choices. If not, look at the other novels. You may also start looking on Amazon or at the local libraries for a copy of your number one choice. Most likely you will get your number one choice, so you might want to order it right away so you can get a jump start on reading it (you can usually send books back or sell them to your classmates if you end up changing books— keep your receipts!) If you buy the book online and it takes awhile to get shipped, come into my office to start reading my copy while you wait. Don’t put off starting the reading. You only have 3 weeks to complete the novel.

What is different about this book cover? Does it convey a different tone or message, or appeal to a different audience? “Now a Broadway Musical”