TRAVEL WRITING VS. BLOG POSTS

Both travel writing and blog posts have a similar purpose, to entertain an audience. Although they have the same goal, they are completely different and both have very different tones. I've compared the blog of 'beauty-guru' Zoella to a travel writing piece written by Lindy Van den Boomen about Turkey (http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/sep/13/turkey-beach).

Zoella is a beauty blogger and Youtuber who posts about anything ranging between the newest range of cosmetics to a personal experience that may inspire her younger audience. Her blog is very informal and she commonly nicknames her audience 'internet buddies'. This creates a closer relationship between reader and writer and makes you feel involved. Travel writing however, scarcely uses colloquialisms or slang as it is a bit more serious. People read travel writing to hear opinions and descriptions of places, people and feelings towards a place, so travel writing pieces are typically full of adjectives. 'Intimacy', 'luxury' and 'serenity' are common themes discussed in travel writing as they serve a purpose to entertain and potentially persuade others to experience it for themselves. 

Whether it's a motivating story to inspire young girls or a detailed description of the ocean, both texts relay experiences in the hope that their audiences will emulate them. Zoella has millions of followers and they all see her as a friendly figure. She displays this welcoming and polite attitude on her blog by not using taboo language but keeping an informal register. It is likely that swearing would offend some audience members and as the majority of them are so young; it would be inappropriate and could ruin her 'role-model' status. Travel writing also avoids the use of expletives as they wouldn't benefit the tone of the text. Drama is added to travel writing purely through the use of similes, metaphors and imagery. All these techniques bring the reader closer to the writer as if used effectively they can make the audience feel as though they are in the setting described. 

Persuasion plays a role in a lot of travel writing, even if it's unintentional. The author of travel writing may simply describe a popular place, however it is then likely they have influenced the reader to want to visit. Travel writing can either 'sell' a place or give it a bad review and this effects the opinions of the reader. On the other hand, Zoella aims to entertain her audience with her blog as well as educate. A lot of her posts are beauty related and are full of subject specific lexis but she also gives advice and a lot of her posts feature a moral. This also creates a closer reader-writer relationship as her audience then look to her for guidance on a range of subjects and issues. She also leaves questions at the end of each post for her audience. They could be anything from 'what are you looking forward to next year?' to 'what's your favourite fall outfit?'. She occasionally places a question at the beginning of a post as a slight adjacency pair. This means that the blog post to follow will carry on the 'laid-back conversation' style.

Overall, the audience for travel writing seek out posts that will make them imagine and take them to the place being described, however the audience for Zoella's blog are looking for a close relationship and role-model that they can share entertaining posts with.