Blog Entry Archetypes: Opinion Entry
Continuing our look at the Blog Entry Archetypes, we now take a look at one of the third most prominent entry type, the Opinion Entry.
- Summary
As the old saying goes, there's never any shortage of opinions. This is definitely the case with the Internet, and the blogosphere is certainly no exception. The highly personal nature of blogging and the extremely inter-connected, ever-expanding nature of the web provides a tremendous flow of new ideas and reactions.
Effectively, the Opinion Entry is a hybrid of both the Personal and Reference Entry Archetypes. Like a Personal Entry, the Opinion Entry provides a very private impression about a specific topic. Similar to the Reference Entry, the Opinion Entry often provides analysis and reference, be it in the form of a link or description.
Often the Opinion Entry is used to provide a pointed series of observations relating to an existing or current event or circumstance.
- Format
As has been a common theme with all the previous Entry Archetypes, the specific design and formatting of the Opinion Entry varies greatly. Although the Opinion Entry is very similar to the Personal Entry, the even the most relaxed author will provide more structure. This structure is required as it assists in the delivery of the opinion. To this end, two formats tend to dominate the landscape: the Summary Format and the Interstitial Format.
The Summary Format shares its formatting with the Offset Format of the Reference Entry. In this setup, some background information is presented at the beginning of the entry followed by a more lengthy commentary.
The Interstitial Format provides a more point-by-point analysis (the “blow-by-blow”, if you will). The author makes use of extensive quoting from the original source to provide context and re-create the experience of the original piece. Commentary is interspersed to weave the author’s opinion in a more coherent manner.
Although both formats may be used, certain circumstances tend to favor one over the other. The Summary Format works best when the subject matter is more abstract and not tied to a specific event or action. On the other hand, the Interstitial Format is ideal when responding to a series of events, when responding to another commentary, or when re-creating a timeline of events.
- Effort
The Opinion Entry can require as little effort as the personal entry, or significantly more, depending on the author’s desire to 1) relate the complete background and context being reacted to and 2) convince the audience to agree or disagree with the opinion put forward.
Unlike the previous Entry Archetypes, the Opinion Entry usually requires a higher degree of research and commitment on the author’s behalf. For the most part, authors are required to first internalize a subject matter and then provide a summary or pointed review. As opposed to simple rambling, this entry focuses on the presentation of information for both the author and the audience.
- Deployment
The Opinion Entry is very popular, as opinions are never in short supply. Overall, close to 15% of the entries posted utilized this archetype. Overall deployments of this entry type will always be lower than that of the Personal and Reference types, if not solely based on the relative effort required.
- Examples
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The following posts show several a couple of examples of the Opinion Entry: