Evaluation Questions

Understanding Questions focus on what ideas the writer’s ideas are. (i.e. the ideas contained in the extract). Analysis Questions – focus on how the writer has expressed his/her ideas. (i.e. the language used to express the writer’s ideas). Evaluation questions focus on how well those ideas have been expressed. This type of question tests your ability to: –provide your personal opinion about an issue relating to the passage(s). –back that opinion up with evidence.

How Do I Know it’s an Evaluation Question? Evaluation questions test how well you can support your opinions about a writer’s ideas with evidence. A typical Evaluation question may contain some of the following words / phrases: “Evaluate…” “How effectively does..” “To what extent does…”

Evaluation Questions – Structure The structure to an Evaluation answer should be similar to a an Analysis answer: Evaluation Question Structure: 1.State your opinion on the issue you have been asked to consider. 2.Identify ideas / language features which support your opinion, quoting them where appropriate. 3.Explain how the idea / feature you have identified supports your opinion. “Effective Conclusion” Evaluation Questions Often, the final question for Passage 1 is an Evaluation question like this: Evaluate the final paragraph’s effectiveness as a conclusion to the passage as a whole.2 In this case, you should focus on the ways the writer’s ideas / techniques help to make the paragraph an effective conclusion. You could consider: –Ways the ideas / language features in the final paragraph relate to ideas techniques used throughout the passage, in order to round up / summarise the writer’s main ideas. –Ways the ideas / techniques in the final paragraph relate to ideas / language features used at the start of the passage, in order to give the passage a sense of symmetry / circularity.

6.Evaluate the final paragraph’s effectiveness as a conclusion to the passage as a whole.2 State Opinion The final paragraph is an extremely effective conclusion to the passage. Evidence and Analysis “(beyond) priceless......suggests that the true value of trees cannot be counted. This reinforces the writer’s belief in the value of trees, an idea explored throughout the passage. The rhetorical question “But for how much economic growth is it worth mowing down a wood?”......challenges the reader to reflect on one the main arguments of the passage: whether or not it is right to strip away nature in order to make money. The writer admits that inevitably trees will be cut down to make way for developments......, a point she has already made in relation to the Hastings development and government policy in general. The reference to wealthy individuals “planting orchards” so that they will be remembered long after their deaths revisits the writer’s argument that trees will live on long after we are dead / we value trees as a way of remembering our loved one.... relates to the “orchards” she states that her own trees are a remnant of at the start of the passage, giving the passage a circular structure.