Is Kendrick Lamar’s new album a good rap album?
Are high school Sex-Ed classes necessary or effective? Do they accomplish their goal?
What is the best sport for high school students to play?
Is Miley Cyrus a good model for young girls?
Are online dating sites a good way to find a romantic relationship?
Is e-mail an effective mode of communication in the small business setting?
Is Central Virginia Community College a good option for residents of the greater Lynchburg area?
Is Disney’s Beauty and the Beast a good live-action remake of the animated version?
Are Bose headphones or speakers a good product for a home recording studio?
Does the Harry Potter series warrant the success and hype that it has created?
We make evaluations every day, when we buy a product, watch a movie, or eat at a restaurant.
The purpose of the evaluation essay is to demonstrate the overall quality and value (or lack thereof) of one of the following: a film, TV show, music recording, book, short story, poem, essay, musical, play, or performance; a product, service, policy, business, practice, person of influence, or program.
The question you’re answering in this essay is this: Is W a good member of its class based on criteria X, Y, and Z.
While any evaluation involves injecting some form of opinion, if an evaluation is done properly, it should not come across as opinionated. Instead, the evaluation should seem objective, reasoned, and unbiased.
This is a three page essay. Format your essay using MLA style guidelines. No research or secondary sources are required.
Note: This essay should not be a simple “review” of a product or explanation of why you personally like or don’t like it, but should be a sophisticated, developed, detailed, in-depth, and carefully thought-out evaluation of your chosen subject. The key to making this happen, and therefore the key to a good evaluation essay, is establishing clear and fair criteria, judgments, and evidence.
1. Criteria are the standards or ideal characteristics of the subject you’re evaluating. Having clear criteria is what keeps an evaluation from feeling less arbitrary or like an opinion. For example, if you are evaluating a restaurant, you want to establish the criteria (quality of food, service, price, cleanliness, etc.) that any good restaurant should adhere to; this criteria can then be applied to the specific restaurant you are evaluating.
Similarly, if you intend to sign up for a wireless phone contract you expect both the product and the service to work as the business is stating it will. There are specific standards you expect from the phone based on what the company states the phone can do, and there are specific standards you expect from the service the company is offering based on the company’s own information.
Verizon Wireless boasts the largest 4G LTE network, and they have a large customer base. This large customer base would not stay with the company if their service failed, and many people do end up switching phone companies because of issues with service.
For the wireless phone example, there are specific criteria you could mention in your essay. Regarding the service, you could summarize the company’s promotional pamphlet: quality of cell signal, customer service, price, services and items available to give greater ease of use, etc. You can do the same with the wireless phone you purchase using the company’s information about that particular phone: ease of use, battery life, price, technical support available, etc.
You would describe this criteria in your evaluation essay so that your reader knows the expectations of the service and product involved. Without it, your reader has no idea what was expected of these items and therefore cannot evaluate anything from what you write.
2. The judgment is the establishment of whether or not the criterion is met. This is the evaluation. For the restaurant example from above, if the first criterion for evaluating a restaurant is the quality of the food, the judgment states whether or not the particular restaurant offers food that meets or exceeds this stated quality.
3. The evidence is the details offered to support the judgment. If your judgment is that a particular restaurant does not consistently offer quality food, you need to support this with a variety of evidence to show how the judgment was reached.
So how do we put these three elements to work to make an evaluative essay that says more than “Because I said so”? For starters, you will want to include five main components (five paragraphs—hint, hint): your introduction and thesis, some background information, your criteria, your judgment supported with evidence, and your conclusion.
Here are some steps to take to successfully develop and write your essay:
Step 1 (first paragraph)
The introduction has a pivotal role in this essay: it establishes your subject, audience, role, and purpose, and the give your overall judgment in the form of a thesis statement. This is key to the evaluative essay; it helps to focus your evaluation. Being as specific as possible helps you formulate an effective evaluation because you’re not trying to cover it all: just a few key parts that come together to make your overall judgment.
Here are some sample topics and thesis statements. Notice that the thesis statement includes several elements: the evaluated subject, criteria, and the judgment or evaluation itself.
Topic: 2002 Ford Escort as a good or not-so-good used car for college students (product)
Thesis: “The 2002 Ford Escort is a good car for low-income college students because it is dependable, safe, and fairly priced, providing the most initial value for the money.”
Topic: E-mail as an effective or ineffective mode of communication in business (practice)
Thesis: “Despite its being quick, reliable, and easy to learn, e-mail is not an effective medium for business communication because it reduces worker efficiency, leads to frequent misunderstandings, and often lacks confidentiality.”
Topic: The Simpsons as high-quality or low-quality entertainment for adults (performance)
Thesis: “At a time when society seems to be destroyed by its own designs, it is good to be able to hold up a mirror that shows us the extent of our problems; neither escapist nor preachy, The Simpsons provides such a satiric mirror, a metaphoric reflection of our dissolving social foundation; more than that, The Simpsons is therapeutic—to be able to laugh in the face of such problems is the ultimate catharsis.”
Topic: Miley Cyrus as a good or not-so-good role model for young girls (person/position)
Thesis: “Despite her popularity and influence, Miley Cyrus is not a good role model for young girls because she encourages promiscuous conduct; she degrades her own body image; and shows little respect for herself and others through her immature antics, reckless behavior, and rebellious attitude.”
Topic: eHarmony as a valuable or non-valuable online dating site for young adults (program/service)
Thesis: “While some singles are cynical or skeptical of online dating sites, eHarmony is a valuable service because it is specifically designed for marriage-minded people (not casual daters), uses a high-tech algorithm to privately match users of similar core traits and values, and includes special security features that protect its users’ privacy and ensures their safety.”
Step 2 (second paragraph)
After establishing your overall judgment and defining your focus with a clear and developed thesis statement, you’ll move on to the next key component: background. Before you start evaluating something, your reader needs to have some kind of idea of what you are evaluating. In the case of a movie or book review, you’d include a brief summary. For a restaurant, you’d talk about the history, mission statement, the kind of food served, and the style of dining.
Step 3 (third paragraph)
The background’s purpose is twofold: first, it helps the reader get on the same page and understand exactly what you are evaluating. Second, it helps establish the purpose of whatever it is you are evaluating and justify your criteria. Here you’ll discuss the main goal or purpose of your chosen subject, which may differ from others like it. Think about it, romantic comedies are generally geared toward a different audience than artsy, independent films. They often have different goals, too. While a romantic comedy may be made purely for entertainment purposes, the independent film might try to present some sort of commentary on life, or make you consider a new idea or viewpoint.
Or in the case of a restaurant review, Bob’s Burger Stand, a casual, walk-up burger joint would be evaluated using completely different criteria than Merlot Burger, a gourmet, sit-down restaurant that serves Kobe beef burgers marinated in fine wines.
Step 4 (fourth paragraph)
Once you’ve established clear criteria or standards by which to evaluation your subject, you can now make your evaluation supported by a variety of evidence to justify your evaluation. It’s important that you clearly and objectively explain and demonstrate how your subject does or does not meet the standards you’ve established.
Step 5 (fifth paragraph)
The evaluation essay will require a conclusion which does not summarize the points made during the main body but offers a “forward-looking” call to action. In reading your evaluation, your audience should come to some conclusion. What action should they do? Not buy a particular phone? Not enroll in a certain professor’s class? Not eat at a certain restaurant? To watch a particular movie? To buy a certain computer? In your conclusion, you may also provide some additional criteria or ideas for further evaluating similar subjects.
It is important that your argument has been logically structured throughout; that each point leads fluently on to the next and seamlessly through to the conclusion.