RSSSelf-improvement books: A genre analysis
Apr 19
Institution: Victoria University of Wellington
Program: School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2015
Author: Jeremy Koay
Dissertation Title: Self-improvement books: A genre analysis
Dissertation URL: https://researcharchive.vuw.
Dissertation Director(s):
Jean Parkinson
Elaine Vine
Dissertation Abstract:
The aim of the thesis is to explore the characteristics of self-improvement
books as a genre. Studies within genre theory tend to have a focus on academic
and professional (e.g., legal, medical) settings, and their goals are mainly
to describe the rhetorical structure and lexicogrammatical features of a
particular genre. Often, interview data is utilised to complement textual
analysis. Although self-improvement books are a widely read genre,
particularly in the Western world, none to my knowledge has examined the
linguistic features of this genre in detail.
The thesis draws on the three main schools of genre theory: English for
Specific Purposes, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and the New Rhetoric, and
begins by investigating the sections (e.g., acknowledgement, introduction
chapter) in self-improvement books and the typicality of the sections.
Focusing on three sections: introduction chapters, body chapters, and ‘about
the author’ sections, I examined how authors structure the sections by
analysing the moves and steps. This study also examined the stories in
self-improvement books by analysing the purpose of the stories and their
structure. To analyse the genre at a register level, the study examined the
most unambiguous aspects of engagement: personal pronouns focusing on you,
imperative clauses, and questions, and the lexicogrammatical feature of
self-improvement book titles. To examine whether the features are unique to
self-improvement book titles, the study compared them to the titles of
historical biographies. Drawing on interview data and literature on the
American Dream, American individualism, Neoliberalism, and New Age beliefs,
the thesis explains the linguistic characteristics of self-improvement books
and how the genre reflects these ideologies.
Forty self-improvement books were selected based on a set of criteria that I
developed, and in various analyses subsets were selected from the main
dataset. The study included ‘specialist informants’ interview data that
consisted of three categories of interviewees: readers of the genre,
non-readers of the genre, and authors of the genre. It is arguable that
non-readers of the genre are not ‘specialist informants’ but in this study
they might provide insights from the other side of the coin.
Paying attention to the obligatory rhetorical moves, move analysis indicated
that the main purpose of introduction chapters, and ‘about the author’
sections are persuading readers to read the book, and establishing
credibility, respectively. Authors always persuade readers to read their books
by listing reasons to read them. The body chapters present the problem that
readers potentially experience, present the authors’ message, recommend
practical applications, and encourage readers to apply them. From a genre
perspective, the purpose of all the stories in my analysis is to illustrate
the authors’ message.
Register analysis, and drawing on interview data, suggests that authors use
the personal pronoun you, imperative clauses, and questions to engage readers.
The abundance of the personal pronoun you, suggests that self-improvement
books are a reader-oriented genre. The analysis of the imperative clauses
using Halliday’s process types suggests that the main way to improve our
lives, the authors recommend, is to change how we think.
Finally, my thesis suggests that the social purpose of self-improvement books
is to help potential readers improve their lives, and the approach of
improving one’s life has an individualistic orientation.
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