Prompt, Option 1
Working alone or in groups of 2-4, choose a restaurant to review. Research the restaurant on
social media, Yelp, newspapers, etc.
Write a blog (3-5 pages, single spaced, including images), or record a vlog (video blog, mostly
scripted and rehearsed, 7-10 minutes), on a website or on social media about your experience
dining in this restaurant.
Have a specific audience in mind for this review. You should format the document like an
authentic blog in a newsletter style (Microsoft Word, File, New, Newsletter; Adobe) with
columns, sidebar, featured quotes, graphics, etc., crediting yourself as a blog writer; or like a
well-rehearsed vlog, introducing yourself and performing the mostly-scripted show. Pretend that
you have loyal subscribers who look forward to reading all of your blog posts or watching all of
your vlogs. Include the name of your blog or vlog (Good Eats, Ballin’ on a Budget, Aztec Foodie
Squad, Hangry Beast, for example) and the title and date of this particular blog or vlog post.
Keep paragraphs in the blog short and readable—appropriate for this genre. Feel free to use an
informal and humorous tone with your audience. Narrate a story about your experience eating
out at this restaurant. Provide some funny dialogue (real or imaginary) as you review the
restaurant, and be descriptive in order to entertain and captivate your audience and to get them to
spread the word so that you reach more people and get them to subscribe to your blog or vlog.
Tell your audience about this restaurant by providing context. Where is it located (street address
and neighborhood)? What kind of restaurant is it and what kind of food is served there? How
long has it been in business? Who are the owners and managers? Do you know any of them or
their staff personally?
Describe the restaurant’s ambiance and what it might reveal about the character of the business.
You might mention the exterior and interior color scheme, signs, architecture, furniture,
art/décor, dress code of the staff, authenticity (Irish bartender with a Dublin Irish accent serving
Irish cuisine at The Field in downtown San Diego, for example), or any other details.
Tell your audience what you ordered and describe the food served. Provide specific details about
the appearance, taste, and texture of the dishes and beverages you ordered. Remember that you
are making an argument of your own to influence your subscribers (like “Go to this restaurant
immediately! You won’t be sorry, y’all!” or “Skip this overpriced place. It’s all sizzle and no
steak, yo. Ya know y’all can trust me to keep it real, my squad.”)
Notice the forms of rhetorical elements—written, visual, and spoken—and rhetorical strategies
and rhetorical appeals employed by the restaurant’s owners, managers, and staff to target specific
patrons. How do the servers use rhetoric to encourage you to order more items? Are there any
reviews of the restaurant or notes from patrons praising the restaurant displayed? If so, where are
those located? What effect do these have on the restaurant’s guests? Describe those guests. Are
they couples, families, business people, senior citizens, or single hipsters? How do the servers
use rhetoric to connect with guests (and perhaps to increase the prices of guest checks and
gratuity/tips)?
How does your experience dining in the restaurant compare and contrast with what you read
about it when you researched social media, Yelp, etc., or what you heard about it through word
of mouth? Did it meet or exceed your expectations? Were you disappointed in any way? Rate the
restaurant (for example, thumbs up, thumbs down; 0-4 stars; 0-4 yums or 0-4 yucks).
Ultimately, based on your experience, what can you conclude about the role that rhetoric (the art
of using language/images effectively and persuasively in spoken, written, and visual forms) plays
in the business of this restaurant?
End by telling your audience which restaurant you will be reviewing for your next blog or vlog
post and encourage any of them who haven’t already done so to subscribe to your blog or vlog!
How to Structure This Project
Introduction: Greet your readers or listeners and remind them about your blog or vlog. Tell them
the purpose of your blog or vlog. Urge them to subscribe if they haven’t already done so.
Tell your audience which restaurant you selected, what kind of food is served there, and why you
chose this particular place. Tell them where it’s located and give them plenty of context about
the restaurant.
Describe the restaurant’s ambiance, authenticity, etc.
Tell your audience what you ordered and describe the appearance, taste, and texture of the food
and drinks.
Describe the rhetorical elements and strategies used by the staff to target specific patrons.
Describe the other customers dining at the restaurant.
Conclusion: Compare and contrast reading and hearing about the restaurant with actually dining
in there. Rate the restaurant.
Assert a claim about how rhetoric plays a role in the business of this restaurant.
Tell your audience which restaurant you will be reviewing for your next blog or vlog. Urge any
of them who haven’t already done so to subscribe to your blog or vlog.
Criteria for Evaluation
Successful writers will
- Answer all parts of the prompt.
- Create a cohesive and well edited project.
- Upload a rough draft of their blog to Turn It In (or upload an outline/script of the vlog
with YouTube link to Turn It In before the deadline. - Upload the final draft of their blog to Turn It In (or upload the script of the vlog and
YouTube link before the deadline. - Complete 3-5 pages, single spaced, including images, for the blog, or 7-10 minutes for
the vlog.
Handout (compiled from reviews written by students in a past RWS 305W class)
Using Tone and Details to Engage Readers
It’s a Friday afternoon, and I have just picked up my brother and sister from school. I have two
hungry teenagers in the car, and all I can think about is getting food in their stomachs—FAST.
Upon entering Old Town Mexican Café and Cantina, you can actually smell the food from the
street.
As soon as you walk into Tokyo Sushi Loha, the sushi chefs and waitresses greet you by yelling,
“Irrashaimase!” which means “Welcome!”
Not many people can resist an adventure. Adventures are exciting, uncharted, and exhilarating
journeys that bring so many unforgettable memories. As a college student, I know that it is a
somewhat unspoken rule to have as many impulsive, ridiculous adventures as possible before
graduating and going into the real working world. To kick off the Halloween weekend, I devised
plans for my own adventure: to go to a classmate-recommended diner in Coronado, CA at 4
A.M. and simply eat breakfast.
There is no hostess who takes you to the next available table. Rather, you are your own host who
has to keep a sharp eye out for an empty seat in this small restaurant because if you are not
paying close attention, someone will snag your seat faster than the cook can say, “Order up!”
Instead of a traditional waiter walking up to the table with a pad of paper ready to take down
your order, the cook just turns around and says, “Yell what you want when you are ready.” We
were a bit taken aback by such informal restaurant language at first, but then we realized how at
home it made us feel. The atmosphere of Night and Day Café is kind of like being at home
sitting at the kitchen counter while your mom stands at the stove cooking breakfast. Except
instead of mom, the one cooking is a big burly man named Keith who has a side ponytail of
black curly hair and crazy eyes that could beat you in a staring contest every time.
As we pored over the drink menu, I noticed right away that it also corresponded with the
restaurant’s theme, with raunchy drink names, such as the “Titty Twister and “Cheri Black GString.” Feeling slightly overwhelmed, I asked our server Liza for drink suggestions. She
recommended her favorite, the “Ménage-a-Twat,” promising it would be “like an orgasm in your
mouth.” Not wanting to pass that up, I went with her recommendation and wasn’t disappointed.
Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies
When it came time to order, I felt like I should have a pen and paper because I ran into
celebrities there. The celebrities were the three brothers who created Lucha Libre, and they
personally took my order, wearing blue jeans with black t-shirts that had “Lucha Libre” on them
and a picture of a wrestler. I ordered the famous “TJ” hotdog, and one of the brothers stated,
“You can’t have the ‘TJ’ hotdog without getting the ‘TJ’ corn.” Little did he know, I was on to
his little rhetorical strategy of persuasion, but, in the end, he convinced me when he mentioned
the very cheap price of “only $4.99.” I guess it was his friendly and trustworthy tone that made it
seem like I would be doomed for the rest of my life if I did not order the “TJ” corn, too.
Remembering from the website, I asked for the Luchador discount, and one of the brothers
stated, “Not without buying one of our masks.” What a great discount—to buy a forty dollar
mask that is going to save me only a few bucks! Luckily, my friend is a huge Lucha Libre fan, so
he went ahead and decided to buy one. However, before my friend could purchase the forty
dollar mask, one of the brothers had to mention that the sixty-five dollar mask was more realistic.
He explained that the more expensive mask is of a better quality and that the designs on it are
more detailed. With him visually showing us the details on the more expensive mask and telling
us it was copied from a famous wrestler’s mask, my friend decided to buy it.
Towards the end of the dinner, the manager came over and noticed that I had been writing a lot
of stuff down and looking around very analytically. He asked me what I was doing, and I told
him I was writing a review of his restaurant. Without fail, 10 minutes later, a server came over
with a giant bowl of green tea ice cream—on the house—atop shaved ice, lit with glowing red
and green balls.
Understanding Audience
The pizzeria never claims to be unique or outstanding. Luigi, given that his primary customers
are looking to get real Italian food that’s cheap and tasty, correctly chose not to waste money on
extravagant exterior architectural design and décor when it could be funneled into creating a
more affordable and superlative product catered towards young people.
I took some more time to look around the place and noticed that the majority of the patrons
consisted of two or more people. I was actually the only guy sitting by himself at this Italian
restaurant. I wasn’t feeling ashamed, only a little bummed out that all three girls I called to have
dinner with me here had turned me down…If I recall correctly, the slogan of Olive Garden was
“When you’re here, you’re family.” Well, that’s pretty depressing if I’m sitting here all by
myself munching on this lasagna.
Roberto’s caters to passing beachgoers with its outside “walk-through window,” allowing for
dripping wet bathing suits and sandy feet, as well as the patrons lugging their wet and sandy
beach toys. After dark, the restaurant is accented with bright neon lights, attracting the attention
of drunken partiers. It is open 24 hours a day every day, causing it to be a popular place when all
the bars close. Even later in the evening it is not uncommon to see homeless people cleaning the
restaurant in exchange for a meal and a place to loiter…Roberto’s is generous to locals and
frequent customers, as well as friendly to the visiting tourists. With its convenient location,
delicious food, large portions, fair prices, and great service, it is a true Southern California beach
restaurant.
Discussing The Role of Rhetoric in a Restaurant’s Business
Aspects such as exterior and interior, architectural design, atmosphere, ambiance, layout,
reviews, décor, and disposition all serve as windows into the very soul—or character—of a
business. Furthermore, they also serve as rhetorical strategies to encourage more orders, thereby
increasing profits.
The feeling that I got from the restaurant’s rhetoric was that while Pho Saigon Star presented
itself as a modern and non-traditional restaurant to better appeal to non-Vietnamese customers, it
still offered the authentic flavors one would expect from a traditional, family-owned Vietnamese
restaurant. The restaurant logo, menu graphics, dress code of the staff, and furniture suggested
that this business knew its demographic, and, based on our experience and the several reviews
online, I can conclude that Pho Saigon Star is successful with its approach.
To conclude my review of my experience at Olive Garden, the role of rhetoric in the restaurant is
prominent. It can be seen in the staff’s behavior, the language of the menu and website, and the
advertisements for the restaurant. Rhetoric is the backbone of the business’s success. Without the
advertisements, the wording, the attitudes, even the decoration, Olive Garden would be nothing
but a chain restaurant that serves reasonably priced, but not more than above average tasting
Italian food.
Sample Solution
