TOW #23: IRB- Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

Now that I have finished the Jay-Z autobiography Decoded, I can safely say that this was one of the most in depth biographies I have ever read about an individual that was not an autobiography. Even though this Jay-Z biography does not assume automatic ethos for the author because he is writing about another man, as the text develops you soon realize that they do indeed have a sense of ethos because of all of their research on Jay-Z’s life.

One unique tactic the writer of this text implements in their biography to enhance its illustration of Jay-Z’s life is the use of his own lyrics as both visual images and also titles and subtitles of the chapters within the book. With there being so much detail about the life of Jay-Z, it will be assumed that the audience of the text will be individuals who have some passion for his music. Therefore, it only makes sense that the audience will understand that the titles of each chapter are actual lyrics and quotations from the rapper himself. The author of this text definitely relies on the previous knowledge of their audience peace most of their devices would prove ineffective if the readers did not know anything about Jay-Z’s music.

Additionally, using Jay-Z’s words as a guide for the biography extends the author’s sense of ethos because he uses the exact words of Jay-Z as a path of the biography itself. Writing a book about someone else is no easy task because you not only have to gather about information about someone else, but you need to attract readers who will believe that you have the vast amount of someone else’s life in order to write about them. Thus, this device of using common phrases of the audience’s familiarity proves to be a useful technique for the author to gain ethos, however would definitely be an ineffective tactic if the reader has no clue about Jay-Z or his music.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this biography about one of my favorite rappers Jay-Z and I think it was nice to change it up this marking period and read a biography. It is a unique perspective to find rhetorical devices within a text that is so black and white such as a biography.