Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers

Renting vs. Buying This Textbook

Renting is usually cheapest if you only need the book for one term: you return it with a free prepaid label when the term ends. Buying used can beat renting when the sell-back price is high, so compare the sell-back price with the rental price before you decide. An eTextbook arrives instantly but usually expires. Rentals and used copies rarely include working access codes.

Always match the ISBN on your syllabus (9780312647001) before you order; different editions have different ISBNs.

About This Book

Signs of Life in the USA teaches students to read and write critically about popular culture by giving them a conceptual framework to do it: semiotics, a field of critical theory developed specifically for the interpretation of culture and its signs. Written by a prominent semiotician and an experienced writing instructor, the text’s high-interest themes feature provocative and current reading selections that ask students to think analytically about America’s impressive popular culture:  How is TV’s Mad Men a lightning rod for America’s polarized political climate? Has the nature of personal identity changed in an era when we spend so much of our lives online? Signs of Life bridges the transition to college writing by providing students with academic language to talk about our common, everyday cultural experience. Read the preface. Order Multimodal Readings for…