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The old saying is “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but Caroline Kilborn ’25 is bucking that idea, all for the sake of her research.

Kilborn will present her work at the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) on April 29, researching what elements of a book’s cover draw people to pick it up and read. It started from her professional writing and rhetoric technology studio course where she was required to create different pieces of a press kit with Adobe products.

“I really enjoyed learning how to use all of those (products), and I wanted to do something fun for this SURF project,” said Kilborn. “You’re able to choose the topic so I wanted to incorporate the use of design in some kind of way.”

Research is one of the five ���ϲ����� Experiences and students must complete two of the experiences to graduate. On SURF Day, campus activities are suspended as hundreds of students present their undergraduate research and creative endeavors, both through poster and oral presentations. Kilborn, a double major in professional writing and rhetoric and English literature, will be doing a poster presentation, her first time presenting during the event.

“I’m excited to show people what I can do, but I’ve gone three years having not done it,” she said. “So I don’t really know what to expect.”

Kilborn’s project included sending a survey asking people to choose from four different book cover options to determine why they chose that cover. She found that, especially among young people, the graphic on the cover and the back summary are two of the most important elements.

She’s now taking what she’s learned and redesigning book covers of her own with the challenge of doing it without the back summary. Some of the covers are from well-known titles like “Great Expectations,” “The Murder on the Orient Express,” a romance novel and a Colleen Hoover novel.

“I didn’t want people to be like ‘I have no clue what this book is like. Why would I choose that?’ I wanted maybe a little less known option, but some more known to be able to reconfigure them in a way that the elements speak to people my age,” she said.

Kilborn says, with more time, she would have liked to pursue additional genres. The project is part of her professional writing and rhetoric senior seminar with Travis Maynard, assistant professor of English, who is also her advisor.

“He’s awesome and has given us free rein on anything as long as you use some type of rhetorical strategy and something that interests you, that’s all that matters,” said Kilborn. “It’s really nice to be able to make our own path.”