Abstract
The blurb on the back cover of a book has a strong promotional function aiming to entice readers to select the book in question. It offers fulsome praise, shuns negativity and is often edited by the publisher (Cronin and La Barre, 2005). Bhatia (2004) traces the historical development of the term ‘blurb’ back to the appearance in 1907 of a comic book jacket decorated with a drawing of the beautiful ‘Miss Blurb’ and subsequent definitions of the blurb as a ‘flamboyant advertisement’, a brief description functioning as a ‘commendatory advertisement’ and a ‘puff piece’ (p. 169). Blurbs are also sometimes referred to as ‘advance praise’ and according to Cronin and La Barre (2005) some US publishers explicitly label them as such on book covers. These writers entitled their own study of blurbs as an enquiry into ‘patterns of puffery’.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Agar, M. (1994) ‘The Intercultural Frame’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, XVIII, 2, 221–37.
Arbury, J. (2008) SLA and the Analysis of Language Teaching Materials (Unpublished MA thesis, University of Auckland, New Zealand).
Basturkmen, H. (1999) ‘A Content Analysis of ELT Textbook Blurbs: Reflections of Theory-in-Use’, Regional English Language Council Journal, XXX, 1, 18–38.
Berelson, B. (1971) Content Analysis in Communication Research (New York: Hafner).
Bhatia, V. K. (2004) Worlds ofWritten Discourse (London: Continuum).
Cacchiani, S. (2007) ‘From Narratives to Intensification and Hyperbole: Promotional Uses of Book Blurbs’ in M. Davies, P. Rayson, S. Hunston and P. Danielsson (eds) Proceedings of the Corpus Linguistics Conference, University of Birmingham, 27–30 July 2007, http://www.corpus.bham.ac.uk/corplingproceedings07/paper/79_Paper.pdf, date accessed 10 December 2008.
Cronin, B. and La Barre, K. (2005) ‘Patterns of Puffery: An Analysis of Non-Fiction Blurbs’, Journal of Librarianship and Information Sciences, XXXVII, 1, 17–24.
Flick, U. (2007) Doing Conversation, Discourse and Document Analysis (California: Sage Publications).
Gea-Valor, M. L. (2005) ‘Advertising Books: A Linguistic Analysis of Blurbs’, Ibérica, X, 41–62.
Gesuato, S. (2007) ‘Evaluation in Back-Cover Blurbs’, Textus, XX, 1, 83–102.
Grupetta, C. (2008) ‘Getting Them Hooked’, http://www.thebookseller.com/in-depth/feature/70467-getting-them-hooked.html, date accessed 10 December 2008.
Hofstede, G. (1984) Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Values (California: Sage Publications).
Kathpalia, S. S. (1997) ‘Cross-Cultural Variation in Professional Genres: A Comparative Study of Book Blurbs’, World Englishes, XVI, 3, 417–26.
Krippendorf, K. (1980) Content Analysis (California: Sage Publications).
Markee, N. (1997) ManagingCurricular Innovation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Ryan, G. W. and Russell, B. (2000) ‘Data Management and Analysis Methods’ in N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research 2nd edition (California: Sage Publications), 769–802.
Richards, J. C., Hull, J. and Proctor, S. (2005) Interchange 3 (3rd edn.). Teacher’s Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Rayson, P. (2008) Wmatrix: A Web-Based Corpus Processing Environment (Computing Department, Lancaster University), http://www.ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/wmatrix/, date accessed 30 December 2008.
Scott, M. (1998) WordSmith Tools (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Swales, J. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Thornbury, S. (2008) ‘McEnglish in Australia’, http://www.Perso.wanadoo.es/sthornbury/McEnglish.htm, date accessed 10 December 2008.
Todova, E. (1997) ‘Capulet and Montague — Reconciled and Ennobled: Recognising the Existence of a Balanced Approach with CLT’, Journal ofCommunication and International Studies, I, 4, 127–34.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2009 Helen Basturkmen
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Basturkmen, H. (2009). Back Cover Blurbs: Puff Pieces and Windows on Cultural Values. In: Hyland, K., Diani, G. (eds) Academic Evaluation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244290_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244290_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-30930-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-24429-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Language & Linguistics CollectionEducation (R0)