Chang 1

Flora Chang
Zack De Piero
Writing 2
14 October 2015
One-Star Reviews or Venting Outlet?

Comment [1]: Great title, Flora! Nice hyphenation too!

Just as how trust is important in any relationship, online reviews are vital to the
companies in the digital world. The everyday use of the Internet has made it very common for
people to search online for reviews of restaurants, hotels, products, and others to see the

Comment [2]: This is confusing me, Flora. Who/what is

"and others" here?

companies ratings. These reviews are what makes the relationship between the consumers and
the companies. The reliance on positive reviews is critical for the success of many companies

Comment [3]: Do you need this sentence? The next

sentence brings this "home" much more forcefully.

high-rated reviews increase the profitability of the business while negative reviews repel the
interest of the audience. This notion is true for all reviews, even for subgenres of reviews. Three

Comment [4]: Excellence use of the "dashed

explanation" here!

popular websites for reviewing restaurants, hotels, and products are Yelp, TripAdvisor, and
Amazon, respectively. All reviews share conventions that are aimed towards the goal of
encouraging or discouraging others from dining at a restaurant, staying at a hotel, or buying a
product. However, the differences in conventions between each of the sources become more

Comment [5]: Well said, Flora. :)

evident when examining reviews under the focus of customer dissatisfaction. Across the board,
from Yelp to TripAdvisor to Amazon, poorly-rated reviews often demonstrate subjective and
exaggerated content that utilizes a sarcastic tone to portray the reviewers negative experience.
Yelp is an extremely popular website for people to leave reviews on businesses,
restaurants, or attractions. While the reviews are not written by professionals, many of the
reviews are still informative and helpful because of its content; the examination of the content of
these reviews show common conventions across most reviews. The reviewers will often mention
the taste, texture, presentation of the food, and the restaurants atmosphere. Most reviews

Comment [6]: Wow! This is excellent! Way to go! (If I

could offer just a bit of advice here, it'd be: OK, sure,
but based on what conventions? And why?)

Comment [7]: You might wanna get at conventions in

your topic sentence -- remember, each move you make
tells (hopefully) your reader how you're unveiling your
argument in a meaningful way.

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mention the customer servicehow attentive the waiters are, how fast the food is served, and
how polite the employees are. These key points are common in restaurant reviews because ones
experience at a restaurant not only relies on the delicious factor of the food, but it is also largely
impacted by how well the customers are treated and how satisfied they are with their experience.

Comment [8]: Great explanation, Flora.

Some reviews explain the dishes that are most appealing and compare the dishes to those from
other restaurants. Pricing, dress code, parking, and reservations are other details Yelp reviewers
include as factors that may impact ones decision to go to a restaurant or not. Yelp also allows
people to upload photos, and some may describe the visual appeals and aesthetics in written form
in order to trigger the audiences senses. Many of the reviewers will suggest favorites,
recommendations, and tips in order to help optimize other peoples experiences. Effective food
reviews appeal especially to pathos.
With the same foundational format as Yelp, TripAdvisor is a common website for those

Comment [9]: This is important, but I think you need to

relate it back to -- how does this enhance my argument
about genre/rhetoric?
Comment [10]: Nice transition here, Flora.

looking for hotel reviews and suggestions. A vital part of ones experience when travelling is the
location of ones stay. These reviews often discuss factors regarding the hotels such as
cleanliness, staff and reception attentiveness, noise levels, room size, and amenities. Other
helpful tips in these reviews include the location of the hotels and how convenient it is in terms
of distance to nearby attractions. The purpose of these reviews is to either recommend or
recommend against staying at the hotels. Describing ones stay allows others to have a rough
perspective of what their experience could be like. As a result, if the audience do not feel like the
reviews are appealing, they would likely filter out those hotels. Hotels with high ratings earn

Comment [11]: Flora, Im wondering if your paper would

benefit from re-structuring the organization. Instead of

more trust from the audience, and thus earn more business as well.

-Source #1
-Source #2
-Source #3

Another company that encourages customer reviews for both its reputation and
profitability is Amazon. Purchasing products online can be difficult without reviews because it is
hard to determine how reliable the seller is. Businesses on large Internet-based sellers such as

Could your paper/argument unfold a more

integrated/interwoven way if you did something like:
-Idea #1 (and then incorporate sources 1, 2, 3)
-Idea #2 (and then incorporate sources 1, 2, 3)
-Idea #3 (and then incorporate sources 1, 2, 3)?

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Amazon largely depend on product reviews to help with their sales because high-rated reviews
amps up the level of trust the consumers have in the seller. Product reviews on Amazon typically
mention the pros and cons, the quality of the product, how worthy the item is considering the
price, the reliability of the seller, shipping speed, and a product description. The reviews provide
the concrete details and evidence that will either persuade a customer to purchase the product or
not. The more detailed the review, the more helpful it is, and the more reviews there are on a
specific companys profile, the more consistent it is. Therefore, each companys profile on

Comment [12]: One thing I'm missing here is textual

evidence/support -- can you tie this to specific
instances/examples? Direct evidence will help win
your reader over.

Amazon has an overall rating, one stars to five stars, in addition to the total number of reviews.
Whether it be Yelp, TripAdvisor, or Amazon, all reviews have the same ultimate goal
to share ones perspective of a place or product. One factor that is almost unanimously
mentioned across all forms of reviews is customer service. When dealing with restaurants, hotels,
or products, customer service has a strong effect on the reviews people write. The quality of the

Comment [13]: Yes ma'am! Since this is the main idea

of your paragraph -- including the tone/sarcasm -- I'd
consider "promoting" this to your topic sentence.

service can indefinitely change ones mood. The significance of customer service becomes
especially clear when customers are unsatisfied and leave an upsetting review. The tone in their
voices is typically irritated. For example, in one instance at a Mexican restaurant, a customer was
asked to leave immediately after finishing her meal because there were customers waiting. In the
review, the customer states that We left but I returned to speak to the manager, who stated that
he thought we were holding up a table. Ok, then. We wont hold up any tables again (Yelp).
The irritation in this customers tone of this one-star review becomes clearly evident in her use of
sarcasm. Sarcasm is often used in poorly-rated, angry reviews because customers let the
emotions rule their mind. Both TripAdvisor hotel reviews and Amazon product reviews also
demonstrate this use of mockery. In one TripAdvisor review, a dissatisfied customer said Pretty
sure Im going to end up with some sort of disease due to sanitation conditions similar to those of
a homeless crackhead (TripAdvisor). Similarly, in a one-star Amazon review, a customer

Comment [14]: Woo hoo! Hitting me with textual

evidence, then explaining to me how it relates back to
your argument.

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described the poor quality of the product by saying Ill make my own from horse poop
(Amazon). Reviews often become an outlet to vent for these frustrated customers. The sarcasm
used often refers to words or symbols with a degrading connotation. For instance, in the
examples previously given, the reviewers described their experiences by comparing it to a
homeless crackhead and horse poop. Another example is when a TripAdvisor reviewer
believed that the hotel should be named Alcatraz (TripAdvisor). The informal voice in these
reviews are also more prevalent in the one-star ratings than in four or five-star reviews because it
is likely that the people who left an angry one-star review do not regularly write reviews. There
is a reasonably high chance that any given user who writes a sarcastic, exaggerated, one-star
review has not previously written many reviewsreview-writing is not a hobby for these users
but rather an outlet to express upsetting emotions. These biased reviews demonstrate pathos, or
an appeal to emotion, which can come across as emotionally manipulative or overly
sentimental when used without logos and ethos (Carroll 53). Logos, or logic, does not exist in
these reviews because the customers are overwhelmed with their negative emotion, and the true
ethos, or the credibility of the company is compromised.
While the purpose of reviews is typically the same, there are differences that arise when
comparing reviews from different categories. Differences within a genre is acceptable, as rules
change as the genre changes and genres require more effort than simply following the rules
(Dirk 258). Across low-rated reviews on Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Amazon reviews, the site that is
most unique is Amazon reviews. Since the reason for a majority of the poorly-rated product
reviews is due to bad quality products, the negative reviews on Amazon are less subjective than
those on Yelp and TripAdvisor. If a product breaks easily, it breaks easily. However if a food
item tastes bad, it may not necessarily taste bad to everyone. As a result, Yelp and TripAdvisor
reviews are more subjective and different from person to person. For instance, in comparing two

Comment [15]: When I see thiseven before I start

readingI think, Ahhhhhhh! Attack of the page-long
paragraph!
See if you like this metaphor:
Pretend your whole paper is a big, juicy steak. Do you
want your reader to enjoy that steak in easy-to-chew,
digestable bites? Or do you want them to start
gnawing away at whole thing in one piece (think:
zombie).
Paragraphs are like those bites.
Give your reader your argument in little, digestable,
one-idea-at-a-time bits.
Readers need to be able to see the different
parts/pieces/bites of the argument that theyre chewing
on.
Comment [16]: *Excellent* use of the readings to
support part of your position here -- not all
genres/conventions are the same.

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reviews posted within a week of each other from the same restaurant, one can see the variation in
the judgment of the taste of the food when one customer says, Best pho in the area, hands
down while another customer says, the pho can easily be beat down the road (Yelp). Taste is

Comment [17]: <3 <3 <3 <3

Pho is my #1 fave.
Comment [18]: Getting it in an hour and half -- no joke.

unique to each individual, resulting in food reviews to be slightly subjective. Additionally, for
most products, there is a return policy that allows unhappy customers to get a refund. This
possibility allows customers to be slightly less bitter about their undesirable experience, as seen
when a customer says, I wasted my time buying these, but at least I got a full refund easily
(Amazon). However, a negative experience at a restaurant or a hotel cannot be reversed. As a
result, the anger in the reviews are evolved into the written form of sarcasm. These reviewers are
often so biased that they forget to consider the more objective factors of their experience or
situation. Their naturally angry response is a result of their lack of understand of how a genres
rhetorical action is meant to prompt a specific response.
The conventions within each genre are what makes understanding genre so significant.
Identifying genre makes it easier to target the audience by making a connection between the
content and the audience. As Laura Bolin Carroll said in Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward
Rhetorical Analysis, Understanding the audience helps you begin to see and understand the
rhetorical moves that the rhetor makes (Carroll 49). Who the audience is and what the genre is
work in conjunction because the audience can determine the type of language used, the

Comment [19]: Again, since "audience" is the main

focus of this paragraph, I'd consider weaving it into
your topic sentence somehow.
(Another great use of the readings.)

formality of the discourse, the medium or delivery of the rhetoric (Carroll 49). Essentially, the
audience points the direction at which a genre is executed and a genre depicts who the intended
audience is. For example, Yelp reviews are catered to readers in the sense that reviews are meant
to be informative enough that it will help readers decide whether or not they are interested in
dining at the restaurant. The genre of restaurant reviews also filters the audience, meaning that
someone looking for opinions on cooking would not look to Yelp for help. Piecing together a

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genre is also important, as the breakdown of the conventions within a genre is what is analyzed.
The analysis is vital since the more we know about how to analyze situations and draw
informed conclusions, the better we can become about making savvy judgments (Carroll 46).
It is what will ultimately guide how the audience responds to a specific genre. In other words, a
brief one-star review should not surprise the audience if it contained sarcastic, subjective, and
cynical comments.
Reviewers either vent, praise, or simply describe an experience they had, in hopes that
their review will be beneficial in one way or another. Understanding the genre of reviews
requires the dissection of the genre into its conventions. From dissecting Yelp, TripAdvisor, and
Amazon reviews, with a focus on low-rated reviews, it becomes evident that even within a genre
are subgenres that have similarities and differences. Angry reviews can often be subjective, as
they become a form of venting for the dissatisfied customers. Meanwhile, Amazon reviews are
slightly less subjective than Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews since describing the quality of a
product is less opinion based. Being able to analyze the conventions of reviews is important in
terms of making a connection between the readers and the content of the reviewsallowing the
audience to be fully engaged in their understanding of how the combination of ethos, pathos, and
logos can contribute to a strong review.

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Works Cited

Carroll, Laura Bolin. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis." Writing
Spaces: Readings on Writing. By Charles Lowe. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor, 2010. 45-58.
Print.
Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette, IN:
Parlor, 2010. 249-61. Print.
Gabo. "Never Again." Review. n.d.: n. pag. Amazon. 15 Jan. 2015. Web.
S, Cheri. "Cheri S.'s Reviews." Review. n.d.: n. pag. Yelp. Mar. 2013. Web.
Sconvey. "There Was Poo in the Kettle..." Review. n.d.: n. pag. TripAdvisor. Sept. 2011. Web.