The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews

Description

The Discourse of Online Reviews is the first book to provide an account of the discursive, pragmatic and rhetorical features of this rapidly growing form of technologically-mediated communication. Examining a corpus of over 1,000 consumer reviews, Camilla Vasquez explores many of the discourse features that are characteristic of this new, user-generated, computer-mediated and primarily text-based genre. She investigates the language used by reviewers as they forge connections with their audiences to draw them into their stories, as they construct their expertise and authority on various subjects and as they evaluate and assess their consumer experiences. She also demonstrates how reviewers display their awareness about emerging conventions of the very genre in which they are participating. This book adopts an eclectic approach to the analysis of discourse, and explores topics such as evaluation, identity and intertextuality as they occur in online reviews of hotels, restaurants, recipes, films and other consumer products.

Camilla Vasquez is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of South Florida, USA.

Vasquez analyzed 1,000 reviews of hotels, restaurants, movies, consumer products and recipes from five sites: Yelp, TripAdvisor, Amazon, Epicurious and Netflix. As she explains in the new scholarly book...the patterns in reviews reveal insights about the state of the English language and the mind of the modern consumer. -- Michael Erard * The New York Times * This book has several strengths. First, it provides a congregational site for linguistics, media/digital studies and business communication studies with a series of exemplary analyses of online review texts ... Vasquez effectively explores the wide range of possibilities of approaching the online discourses of customer reviews, demonstrating the feasibility of working with data from a multi-dimensional perspective ... Thus, this work is a worthwhile addition as it is a valuable resource both for discourse scholars and or other scholars with an interdisciplinary background. * Discourse Studies * [This] comprehensive analysis of online consumer reviews offers an exceptionally detailed overview of how exactly language is used in these interactive, consumer generated digital texts ... [U]sing a range of analytical methods, Vasquez zooms in to the texts and closely examines linguistic and discursive practices, thus enabling practitioners to translate her findings into practical applications and tasks in language, and communication training classes. ... The detailed analyses, case studies and examples enable future business and corporate communicators as well as their instructors to equip themselves with linguistic and discursive strategies that will help not only to survive but also to succeed in new business communication contexts. * English for Specific Purposes * [A] timely and original perspective on the discursive practices of online consumer reviews. ... One of the most impressive features of this book is its clarity and careful attention to its own narrative structure as a methodological tool for data presentation. ... Through a rich triangulation of discourse analysis approaches, and data organized coherently into relevant themed chapters, readers are skillfully guided through the key discursive strategies and practices of a complex dataset ... I found this study both insightful and accessible. The work will undoubtedly feature as a resource for my own and my students' future work on discourse in online narrative communities. * Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies * In this world of online sharing and 'liking', The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews is a timely, innovative, and original piece of work. Analyzing a wide range of review websites with a combination of discourse analytic methods, the book is certainly an important contribution to the growing field of internet linguistics. -- Carmen Lee, Assistant Professor of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong Reputation and ranking through online comment and review are a notable feature of contemporary consumer culture. Based on an analysis of a corpus of 1000 such texts, Vasquez shows how reviewers deploy discursive resources to provide advice, warning and product endorsement. This is an important contribution and makes the book an essential for anyone who is interested in the study of online discourse. -- Guy Merchant, Professor of Literacy in Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Camilla Vasquez' detailed study of online reviews explores a fertile topic for language research, ranging over reviews of hotels and restaurants, consumer goods, movies and recipes. Linguistic topics covered include the discourses of evaluation and identity, intertextuality and narratives of personal experience. The book is clearly and engagingly written throughout and is full of original insights into the dynamics of language online. -- David Barton, Professor of Language and Linguistics, Lancaster University, UK An innovative approach to important, but hitherto overlooked genres of online interaction. Inviting and accessible to non-linguists, and sure to inspire more linguists to engage with these important contexts of situated interaction. Richly and painstakingly researched, featuring a beguiling exploration of the intersections of involvement and intertextuality with a thoughtful eye to the importance of narrative in identity and connection. A must-read for students! -- Anna Trester, Director, MA Program in Language and Communication, Georgetown University, USA The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews is an accessible and insightful overview of the ways people write online reviews. The book is the first large-scale linguistic study of this important material, and covers an impressive number of the significant review sites from an equally impressive number of linguistic perspectives. The linguistic discussion is rigorous, but presented clearly and with plenty of engaging examples so that students and researchers from many fields can benefit from this well-thought out study. -- Ruth Page, Reader in English Language, University of Leicester, UK This is a must read for marketing communication scholars and marketing practitioners. Vasquez has produced the first comprehensive examination of how language in online reviews reveals the nature of reviewers' experiences with products and services, their identities, and even their interactions with and impacts on other readers of online reviews. Bravo to Vasquez for producing a seminal work on the discourse of online reviews. -- Peter Cardon, Associate Professor, Center for Management Communication at the University of Southern California, USA The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews is meticulously documented, richly illustrated and relevant: it showcases the merits of a linguistically minded approach to a digital genre of undeniable importance for the social life and consumption habits of millions. Drawing with dexterity on a broad canvas of latest advances in discourse and narrative analysis for the exploration of identities, Vasquez has provided an indispensable map for future studies of digital genres. -- Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Professor of Discourse Analysis & Sociolinguistics, King's College London, UK