Justifying an Evaluation |1

ENG 1023, Spring

2014

Justifying an Evaluation

Task Summary

Compose a multimedia presentation evaluating a specific subject. Examine

the subject closely and make a judgment about it. (Key chapter: SMG 8)

Length: Presentation should take around seven minutes and include all the
elements covered by the genre in an essay.
Final Draft Due Date: __________________
Description

This genre encourages the student to practice presenting a subject by testing

audience knowledge of the subject and putting it into context. It is important to
identify appropriate criteria by which to evaluate a subject, and support your
judgment by using examples, facts, statistics, textual evidence, expert
testimony, and research studies.
Example: One team of students at another university wanted to know what the
best Vietnamese restaurant within walking distance of campus was, and there
were several to choose from. The team came up with criteria that matter to
students (flavor, price, distance, speed of service) and visited each of them,
comparing the restaurants to each other and determining a winner. The essay
explained why the winning restaurant was better than the others, and
sometimes quoted what students on the team had said about the food and
service during the dining experience.

Tips

1. You may want to take some extra time to figure out what exactly your
subject is. This sounds like a waste of time until you do it. Consider: Is it
fair to evaluate a horror movie using the same criteria you use to
evaluate an historical biography? Probably not. And it would probably
be unfair to the biography to evaluate it by how scary it is. For this
reason, the best evaluators take classifying their subjects seriously. Car
show Top Gear often spends quite a bit of time when reviewing an
automobile trying to figure out what kind of car it is: Is it a touring car, a
family car, a sports car, a supercar? Sometimes this is simple and
obvious. Sometimes, however, the subject is very unusual and hard to
classify. Example: A prominent chef in Minneapolis has created a highend, fusion-cuisine street cart called World Street Kitchen. Should it be
evaluated using the same criteria youd use for a hot dog vender?
Should it be evaluated using the same criteria youd use for a fine dining
restaurant? Are either appropriate? If your subject is unusual, like
World Street Kitchen or a genre-mash-up movie, you may want to
spend extra time in your essay working out what kind of subject it is and
identifying which criteria are relevant.
2. Make sure that your position on the subject you are evaluating is clear.

Justifying an Evaluation |2

This is not the same thing as saying that your position needs to be
simple. It may be complicated or nuanced. You can like some aspects
of your subject but not all of them. But particularly if your position is
complicated, you need to be clear about what it is. Be explicit about
what you mean and what you dont mean. The templates on pages 168
and 169 of They Say/I Say can help you keep things straight.
Related Readings

St. Martins Guide Ch. 8, 22; They Say/I Say Ch. 1-4; and The Craft of Research
Ch. 9.

Supported Outcomes

EEOs: 1 (process), 2 (audience and purpose), 3 (modes of expression), 4

(working in groups), 5 (critical thinking)
FYC: 2 (analysis), 3 (genre expectations), 4 (supports analytical conclusions)
1023: 1 (critical thinking strategies), 2 (process), 3 (purpose/audience), 4
(modes of expression), 5 (peer review), 8 (clear prose).