Week 15 - Evaluation Essay
Introduction
This week, we begin the last essay of the semester. This is a timed-writing exam, so it will be different than the other essays that you have written this semester.
Learning Objectives
After successfully completing the evaluation essay lessons, you should be able to:
describe the purpose, basic components, characteristics, and structure of an evaluation essay
demonstrate writing techniques of an evaluation essay
What is Evaluation?
This section will help you determine the purpose and structure of evaluation. This will help you as you prepare to write your own essay.
The purpose of evaluative writing
Writers use evaluation in writing to present an informed and well-reasoned judgment about a subject. While the evaluation will be your opinion, it should not seem opinionated. Instead, it should seem reasonable and unbiased. This is achieved through developing a solid judgment, selecting appropriate criteria to evaluate the subject, and providing clear evidence to support the criteria.
Evaluation is a type of writing that has many real-world applications. For example, you may have read evaluations about movies, restaurants, books, etc. These are all real-world evaluations.
The structure of an evaluation essay
Evaluation essays are structured as follows.
First, the essay will present the subject. What is being evaluated? Why? Give any details needed about the subject.
Next, the essay needs to provide a judgment about a subject. This is the thesis of the essay, and it states whether the subject is good or bad based on how it meets the stated criteria.
The body of the essay will contain the criteria used to evaluate the subject. In an evaluation essay, the criteria must be appropriate for evaluating the subject under consideration. Appropriate criteria will help to keep the essay from seeming biased or unreasonable. If you were to evaluate the quality of a movie based on the snacks sold at the snack bar, that would make you seem unreasonable, and your evaluation may be disregarded because of it.
The evidence in an evaluation essay is the details you give to support your judgment and the criteria.
For example, if the subject of an evaluation is a restaurant, a judgment could be “Kay’s Bistro provides an unrivaled experience in fine dining.” Some appropriate criteria used to judge a fine-dining restaurant that a writer could use in an evaluation are food quality, service, and atmosphere. The evidence is the examples the writer uses to elaborate on the criteria.
Key Takeaways
An evaluation essay should present an informed and well-reasoned judgment about a subject.
While the evaluation will be your opinion, it should not seem opinionated. Instead, it should seem reasonable and unbiased.
An evaluation essay should start with the writer’s judgment of the subject being evaluated. This is the thesis of the essay.
The evaluation essay will be developed by the writer selecting appropriate criteria to evaluate the subject and supporting the criteria and thesis with evidence.
Now that you have a clearer idea of how how to write an Evaluation Essay, please take the quiz Evaluation Essay. Details are in the "Activities" section below.
Reading
Soon, you will be writing your own evaluation essay. Before we start on that, please read the following evaluation essays. This will give you a clearer idea of what evaluative writing is.
Please read the following essays:
“iPhone 6 Review: The Phone that Lured Me Back to Apple” and “The Duff Movie Review”.
While you are reading these essays, think about what they essays are teaching you about writing an evaluation essay.
After completing the reading, please do the Evaluation Reading Reaction activity. Details are in the "Activities" section below and in Forums > Evaluation > Reading Reaction.
Activities
These are the activities that you need to complete this week. All activities are due by 11:55 p.m. on their due dates.
Evaluation Essay Quiz. Read "What is an Evaluation Essay?" and then take the quiz that covers that material.
Due by xx/xx.
Points: 15
Evaluation Reading Reaction Activity. After reading, "iPhone 6 Review: The Phone That Lured Me Back to Apple" and "The Duff Movie Review," post a forum message in which you write a 250-word reaction (minimum) about your reading experience that focuses on the following questions: What did both of these essays teach you about evaluation? Did the essays bring up any questions about how to write an evaluation essay? How will reading these essays help you to write your own evaluation essay?
Initial post due by xx/xx.
Two replies due by xx/xx.
Points: 20
- Original content contributed by Susan Wood