Rhetorical Analysis: J.K. Rowling's Official Website

Magic, Adventure, and Excitement, these describe J.K. Rowling’s fun and interactive website. As an avid reader and lover of the Harry Potter books, this is a favorite site of mine. J.K. Rowling’s website is very unique. When you arrive at her page you see a desk that is cluttered with so much stuff that it is hard to take it all in. As I said, J.K. Rowling’s site is magical, an adventure and exciting; this is because of how interactive her site is. As you move your mouse across the main page many of the items light up and are links to other parts of the site. It is really fun to explore and discover the many different links and fun things on the page.

I think the goal of her site is to excite and entertain her readers just as much as her books did. It looks like she is trying to persuade them to come to her page often and see what different things have been posted or what is going on. This page doesn’t have a whole lot of text that you read, but it does have a lot of graphics, sounds and things like that. I think that it is very effective for her to use this type of visual for the audience she wants to reach, which is mainly the younger generation and people who enjoy reading her books but it is also for people who may be curious about the books or the author. The animation on the page is definitely used to excite the people who come to her site. It is intriguing and makes the viewer want to check things out.

The creativity and tools that are used on this site are what bring viewers to it, keeps them on it, brings them back in the future and makes then want to share it with their friends. It is very effective way to attract people to a website. The main page is set up so that you come to a desk that has lots of things all over it. You see gum wrappers, paperclips, notebooks, newspapers and more, and these are what you click on to bring you to other parts of the site.

J.K. Rowling uses connotation to get the reader to read the newspaper that you can see on her desk, “The Daily News,” in which articles and information that the viewer may be interested in are posted. The newspaper on her page is similar to and reminds the viewer of the newspapers in the books. It gives you a little sense of being a character out of her books and you can almost imagine the pictures moving. I think this part of her page is very effective in using ethos to make the audience think about they feel about the books, if they liked the books or if they didn’t the books. I think this tool works for the audience because it really does catch their attention and make them want to read what it is about.

Similar to her way of using connotation she uses allusion. In the top right corner of the page there is a flip calendar that says “Wizard of the month archive.” This part of the page is enticing to the viewer because it is interesting to know who the wizard of the month is. It is their favorite character? It is the character that they hate the most? Or is it one of the weird random characters that we don’t often think about? This text is making a reference to her books and the characters in them. This tool is appealing to the viewers’ emotions in a powerful way. I’m telling you it works, I got on and that was one of the things that I wanted to see.

I think this page uses a tremendous amount of imagery. When I first looked at the main page of the site one of the thoughts that came to my mind was, “I wonder if her desk looks anything like this?” This led me to believe that others might also be thinking the same thing. So, while she wrote the Harry Potter books, was her desk a mess, did she have odd things just lying around? This is another example of how she uses ethos on this page. She is getting the audience to think about the possible emotions and thought process behind her writing. It is always intriguing to think about looking into an authors mind and if you can really imagine what they were thinking or what they might have been seeing. I am definitely using this tool to imagine how the books where written or what might have taken place when the work came together.

Also with the desk she uses some pretty crazy overstatements. I think she really exaggerates the perception of how cluttered her desk really is, but I think she does this to get you thinking about why things are there and so on. However, after a while you get tired of looking at all of the different things to a point where you don’t know if you like it. She is really appealing to logos here. When we look at the desk we know that logically people don’t usually work in such environments but with ethos, we are still intrigued by all the things that are there and the fact that her desk might really look like that. It really does make the audience think about all of the individual pieces that are on that page and why she might have placed them there.

Irony is used on the page where it says “Rumours! Free Special Edition.” This link takes you to a page where J.K. Rowling disperses rumors that have been made about her and things related to her or the books. The irony comes from the wording of the link. It says “Rumours” but really it is not encouraging them but proving them wrong. It is interesting that something like rumors, would in fact, entice someone to read that page. Once again it is an ethos appeal. The audience wants to know what crazy things are being said true or not. Our society runs on rumors and gossip. It is because of the way our society works that this appeal works.

Throughout the entire site she uses very good diction. She specifically uses diction on the part where written on the notebook it, “Everything you might want to know.” Well everything is a strong word, so it makes you wonder what that “everything” is that the author thinks you would want to know. Once again, I think it is appealing to the audience with ethos. It is using the audiences curiosity and intrigue to get them to continue reading and looking at things on her page.

If you haven’t noticed yet, there seems to be a trend to appealing to the viewers’ emotions. :) It is a common thread throughout her site. You see it with almost every aspect, like the rumors or the newspaper and calendar. I think that this is because emotions are powerful things that can cause people to have some sort of a response. And emotions are not usually forgotten. The tone throughout the paper is one that excites the viewers and makes them want to continue coming back to this site. Once again, it is an appeal to ethos. She uses the emotions you might have felt in the books and uses them on her site. When people hear about how exciting her website is it makes them want to see it also.

I believe that this site was put together well. It is entertaining and fun as well as informative. J.K. Rowling does a good job of having and audience and actually having things on her site that are for that audience. I think her site is an excellent example of how to get a lot of people (your desired audience) to look at and participate on your site. I really believe that with the understanding she has of who her audience is and what they are interested in she has made this page a page that people will continue to use. It is a great page for readers of all ages, and who of course love Harry Potter.