20 Evaluation
Phil West and Christina Frasier
Learning Objectives
- Recognize the purpose of an evaluative essay, both in college and in work
- Identify the structure of an evaluative essay
- Choosing criteria to use in an evaluation essay
The Purpose of Evaluation in Writing
The evaluative essay is a cornerstone of many college writing classes, and for good reason. If definition is what we use to understand the world, evaluation is how we help classify what’s important and valuable to us. Evaluation plays a role in many aspects of our lives, including what colleges accept us, what jobs we’re qualified for, and where we decide we want to live.
Evaluative essays can take different forms, but they’re all rooted in definition. Some evaluative essays debate aesthetics and artistic merits, determining whether a specific artwork meets a definition of what’s “good” or what constitutes “quality” for its particular genre or medium— much as a movie review or food critic does. Some are concerned with ethics, such as evaluating a policy or a decision based on a certain set of values helping determine whether it’s ethical or not.
Perhaps the most important concept in an evaluative essay is criteria. Criteria is a group of qualities or characteristics that someone uses as a basis for evaluation. In a real-life example you’re no doubt familiar with, colleges evaluate students with several criteria, including grade point average, standardized test scores, and completing a high school diploma, to determine who’s accepted to attend those schools. In an evaluative essay, it’s up to the essayist to establish criteria for the basis of an evaluation, and then to show that the specific subject being evaluated meets or does not meet the criteria for what’s good or ethical.
Example
- Involves two people
- Impacts taxes
- Aids in emotional stability
A definitional essay asks, “What is a marriage?” An evaluative essay, however, looks at a particular marriage or a type of marriage, asking, “Is this marriage [or type of marriage] a good marriage?” The criteria that define a marriage might have some overlap with the criteria that allow us to determine whether it’s good, healthy, ethical, or whatever other evaluative aspect the essayist is arguing.
When creating an evaluative essay, think about the criteria first. For example, if you’re thinking about what makes for a good movie, you might start by thinking of a movie you like, and you might like it in part because it’s funny. But certainly, not all good movies are funny—though if you were setting up an evaluative paper about a good comedy movie, being funny would be an essential criterion to evaluating whether a comedy is good. But elements of a movie like acting, writing, and cinematography might apply more broadly to evaluating whether a movie is good.
The Structure of an Evaluative Essay
One way to conceive of an evaluative essay is by thinking of the thesis statement is a formula: x is a good/ethical y because of a, b, an