There are two series of how-to manuals in the form of books which have been oriented towards the novices and beginners so as to help them learn the fundamentals of a variety of subjects, courses and businesses. These books refer to their buyers and readers as Dummies and Idiots. In the normal course of events, any reader addressed as dummy or idiot would be insulted; however, the readers of such books apparently take no offence at being ascribed such attributes. As a question, the researcher took an interest in the way the readers are treated by these series of books. With this in view, the research samples were selected from several "prefaces" which were addressed to the readers at the very beginning of these books. In the next step, the prefaces were exposed to textual analysis strengthened by rhetorical analysis to map out their complex structures and modes of development, their positioning of the readers and manipulation of the linguistic items to realize the overall purpose of the prefaces. The results indicated that, on the surface, the prefaces seemed to be simple texts, but, in depth, they are manifold texts, simultaneously performing several functions (e.g. being a narrative, promotional…) so as to convince the readers that they are 'dummies' or 'idiots'.
