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

Which do you think is 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 rollerblading (Scruff, J., 1996). In the same article he mentions how using roller-blades
allows him to finish his paper round much faster than when walking. In an accompanying article,
Melanie Scruff (Jason’s sister), contends that “roller discoes are a great place to meet boys” (Schrff,
M., 1996, p. 3) and that she would rather roller-blade into town to meet friends on Saturdays than
walk to catch the bus.

Review 2
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 (Sniffer, 1999; Goodchild, 1999) and leisure (Scruff, M., 1999).

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).

Although it is possible that Goodchild (19996 and 1999) has based his conclusions on observation of
particular 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.

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