The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews

by Camilla Vasquez

Overview

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 Vásquez 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441196842
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	06/19/2014
Series:	Bloomsbury Discourse
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

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

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
1. An Introduction to Online Reviews
2. Evaluation and Stance in Describing Experience
3. The Discursive Construction of Reviewer Identities
4. Interacting with Others, and with Other Texts: Involvement and Intertextuality
5. Digital Narratives of Personal Experience: Narrative Structures and Dimensions
6. Summary and Conclusion
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

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 Vásquez' 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. Vásquez 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 Vásquez 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, Vásquez has provided an indispensable map for future studies of digital genres. - Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Professor of Discourse Analysis & Sociolinguistics, King's College London, UK

From the Publisher

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.

The New York Times Michael Erard