Justifying an Evaluation

Purpose Evaluations are written to help you: better understand the subject being evaluated to influence the reader—their judgement and maybe their actions To get readers to look at the subject in a new way

Basic Features A Well-Presented Subject A Well-Supported Judgment An Effective Response to Objections and Alternative Judgements A Clear, Logical Organization

A Well-Presented Subject To have a well-presented subject, an evaluation must: Clearly describe and/or define the subject being evaluated Classify the subject in terms of its genre or larger category Clearly lay out the criteria being used to evaluate the subject—or the reasons for the opinion you have of the subject Have criteria or reasons appropriate for the subject and based on widely accepted standards of judgement

A Well-Supported Judgment A well-supported judgement clearly states: whether the subject is good or bad/better or worse than other things in the same genre. what features of the subject are being praised or criticized the reasons supporting the judgment the criteria/reasons being used in the evaluation

Well-Supported Judgment continued The judgment being made in an evaluation is usually announced in a thesis statement early in the evaluation. Here are examples of sentence strategies typically used for thesis statements in evaluations: What makes X a success/a failure is __________ and __________. X can be appreciated/criticized for _________, ___________, and ________, but ultimately it is a success/failure because of ____________.

Well-Supported Judgment continued When supporting your evaluation you must give evidence to support your opinion. Types of evidence: Examples and visuals Research or sources that are quoted, paraphrased, or summarized Comparison and Contrast

An Effective Response to Objections and Alternative Judgments An evaluation should anticipate and respond to objections to the argument or to alternative judgments readers might prefer. You can concede or refute alternative judgements. Concessions: Of course, _______ is an important factor. Granted, __________ must be taken into consideration. Refutations: Although ________, I think __________ X says ___________, but I think __________ because ___________

A Clear, Logical Organization A good evaluation provides cues to help the reader follow the logic of the argument. For example: the reasons for an evaluation might be forecast in the thesis statement and then brought up again the writer might use logical transitions to introduce reasons and to show they are moving on to another reason