The following reviews have been written by two students who have read the same articles.

Which do you think is the better review and why?

Review 1

The popularity of roller-blading in the UK has its roots in the 1990s. Jane Iceslider (1990) describes roller-
blading as a means of keeping fit for ice skating during the summer months. In a later article she reinforces this
view, as evidenced by her comment, “All my ice-skating friends use roller-blading as a part of their fitness
training” (Icelsider, 1992, p. 56).

Greg Sniffer, a reformed drug dealer, argues that roller-blades provide “quick escape from any nosy cops”
(Sniffer, 1998, p. 122).

Social worker, John Goodchild, describes roller-blading as a “non-contact replacement activity for young
people” (Goodchild, 1996, p. 29). He cites the growing popularity of children’s roller discos in support of this
claim. In a later article he notes that “rollerblading is becoming an environmentally friendly means of
transportation in urban locations: (Goodchild, 1999, p. 30).

In his school magazine, Jason Scruff, describes roller blading as being great fun, adding that all his mates go

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rollerblading (Scruff, J., 1996). In the same article he mentions how using roller-blades allows him to finish his

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paper round much faster than when walking. In an accompanying article, Melanie Scruff (Jason’s sister),

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contends that “roller discoes are a great place to meet boys” (Schrff, M., 1996, p. 3) and that she would rather

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roller-blade into town to meet friends on Saturdays than walk to catch the bus.

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Review 2
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There is little agreement between authors for the reasons why people roller-blade in the UK. Initially it appears
to have been a keep-fit activity (Iceslider, 1990 and 1992), but over time roller-blading appears to have become
a fashionable activity (Goodchild, 1996), a social activity (Scruff, M., 1996) and a means of transport for work
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(Sniffer, 1999; Goodchild, 1999) and leisure (Scruff, M., 1999).

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There is some evidence that young people have multiple reasons for roller-blading. For example, one teenager’s
motivation for roller-blading was in part due to following trends, but also to the speed of transportation
compared with walking (Scruff, J., 1996).
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Although it is possible that Goodchild (19996 and 1999) has based his conclusions on observation of particular
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cases of children’s behavior, there appears to have been no formal research into the reasons for the popularity
of roller-blading in the UK. Therefore, there is scope for an exploratory study to identify the main motivations
for the popularity of this activity.
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References

Goodchild, J. D. (1996) “The sociology of rollerblading”, Journal of Street Credibility, 1(1), pp. 29-33.

Goodchild, J. D. (1999) “Rollerblading to save the planet”, Journal of Street Credibility, 3(3), pp. 8-9.

Iceslider, J. (1990) “Why I rollerblade”, Journal of Fitness, 3(2), pp. 21-22

Iceslider, J. (1992) “Rollerblade your way to fitness”, Journal of Fitness, 5(1), pp. 53-6

Scruff, J. (1996) “Roller discos and boys”, Kingston School Magazine, Summer term, p. 4.

Scruff, M. (1996) “Rollerblading is cool”, Kingston School Magazine, Summer term, p. 3.

Sniffer, G. (1998) “How I kicked the habit”, Rehabilitation Quarterly, Winter, pp. 122-5

Adapted from “A Mock Literature Review” (Anon.) © Collis and Hussey, 2009

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 Review 2 is definitely better than review 1 because.

1) Structure:
a. Review 1 is unstructured: introduction and conclusion are missing. The last paragraph is not
focused on one theme, but contains sentences that are unrelated to each other.
b. Review 2 is well structured: from introduction to transition and further to conclusion. Each
paragraph is dedicated to one single idea / theme.
2) Writing style:
a. Too many quotes in the 1st review.
b. No unnecessary quotes in review 2. Each paragraph starts with a connecting word or
sentence: “there is some evidence”, “there is little agreement”, “although”.
3) Critical approach
a. Review 1 is not critical. Basically, it provides a collection of summaries, a kind of an annotated
literature review.
b. Review 2 takes critical approach. For example, in the 1 st sentence of paragraph 3 the author
questions sufficiency of extant empirical evidence on the issue.
4) Synthesis:
a. The author of review 1 did not synthesize the information. That’s why review 1 has more
paragraphs. For instance, the author never cited more than one source in one sentence.

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b. The author of review 2 synthesized the sources quite well. For example, in the first paragraph
the author refers to 6 different sources to make one single claim: “there is little agreement

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between authors for the reasons why people roller-blade in the UK”.

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