Blog #7

Before people visit shopping centers, restaurants, and other businesses new to them, they are likely to look them up online to find out more about the location and service before taking the time to drive there. Consumers want to know details from price range, service, convenience and vibe. To get a god feel of all this prior to making their trip, they read reviews. Yelp.com is an incredibly vast website that allows customers of all types of businesses to submit their personal reviews of the location.  The site covers everything from local shops to restaurants on the opposite coast, making it accessible to everyone everywhere. The reviews are majorly based on quality of service, with an interest in price range. A common review is influenced by a single personal experience at any business, restaurant or industry.  People describe their chain of events leading up to their “1 star” review for poor service or the amazing time they had at a restaurant with “5 stars” quality food. For example, Micah T from Phoenix sums up her 4-star rating with a quick review, “I love Zipps! I have been going to Zipps for years mainly to watch sports on one of the many televisions they have playing or for their amazing wings and Happy Hour. The wings are better grilled too so try them that way!”

Although our writing project will be more of researched and backed-up evaluations compared to that of the reviewers on Yelp.com, the reviews help to acknowledge and discover things I should perhaps try and avoid in my draft. For example, a personal touch might be okay, it might even make it more interesting. However, making it clear that your opinion of a certain place is strongly influenced from a one-time experience, or just experience overall, should be avoided. That is definitely not using research and facts to meet the idea behind the writing project. Using trusted sources for this research is also essential to making “evidence” and facts credible and creating a more balanced evaluation on my chosen locations.