Written Communication Jul 1988

The Audience within the Object: The Implied Teacher in Composition Textbook Advertisements

FRANK L. CIOFFI

Abstract

Literary criticism of the last decade has developed a new emphasis: the study of a work's reader alongside the more traditional study of literary texts. Some critics have suggested that literary works imply and project an audience. Drawing upon this body of criticism, as well as upon social commentary and advertising theory, this article attempts to demonstrate how composition textbook advertisements suggest, project, and perhaps even create an audience. Examining a series of composition textbook advertisements from 1982 to 1987 in addition to a number of works of art, this article proposes four different audience-related elements of the ad-object: context (the extrinsic circumstances that the advertisement connotes); genre (the kind of text or object the advertisement masquerades as); borrowings (the sources that the ad-object draws upon); and reflexivity (the image of the viewer mirrored by the advertisement). Each of these, while not entirely discrete, serves to imply and project certain features of the viewing audience. The article's conclusion speculates on the nature of this audience projected by the contemporary composition textbook ad and how this image is important to us as consumers of the ads and purveyors of the products they promote.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1988-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088388005003002
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
genre theory literary studies
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (15)

  1. Blonsky, M.
    On signs
     ↗
  2. Bloom, L. Z.
    The essay connection: Readings for writers
  3. Gibson, W.
    Reader-response criticism: From formalism to post-structuralism
  4. 10.1111/j.0022-3840.1979.1302_197.x
     ↗
  5. Hughes, R.
    The shock of the new
Show all 15 →
  1. 10.2307/468688
     ↗
  2. Lears, T.J.J. (1983)
    Wilson Quarterly
  3. Lewis, H. G.
    Direct mail copy that sells!
  4. Mander, J.
    Four arguments for the elimination of television
  5. McLuhan, M.
    Mass culture: The popular arts in America
  6. Miller, R. I.
    Evaluating faculty performance
  7. Prince, G.
    Reader-response criticism: From formalism to post-structuralism
  8. Rabinowitz, P.
    The reader in the text: Essays on audience and interpretation
  9. Rossiter, J. R.
    Advertising and promotion management
  10. Williamson, J.
    Decoding advertisements: Ideology and meaning in advertising
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Pedagogy Jan 2026
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism genre theory writing pedagogy graduate education two-year college teacher development social media race and writing gender and writing affect and writing literary studies editorial matter
  2. Pedagogy Oct 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter
  3. Pedagogy Jan 2025
    Exploring and Teaching the Medieval in Afro/Africanfuturism ↗
    Kisha G. Tracy
    genre theory graduate education teacher development literary studies
  4. Literacy in Composition Studies Dec 2024
    Review: Eli Golblatt, Alone with Each Other: Literature and Literacy Intertwined ↗
    Elizabeth Kimball
    rhetorical criticism composition theory genre theory first-year composition writing pedagogy argument writing program administration literacy studies community literacy literary studies book reviews
  5. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Mar 2024
    Literacy in a Long Blues Note: Black Women's Literature and Music in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries ↗
    Cecilia Cerja
    rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis argument literacy studies race and writing gender and writing public rhetoric literary studies