Writing a Quality Evaluation

Analytical and Rhetorical WritingMatt Barton

Evaluations• Evaluations answer questions.

– Which car should I buy?– Which college or university should I attend?– Why am I eligible for promotion?

• Evaluations do more than state whether you like something. – They make an argument that your opinion is

worth taking seriously.

Criteria• Good evaluations have good criteria.• Develop and describe the standards and

importance of each criteria. – An evaluation of a car might include criteria

like gas mileage, acceleration, warranty coverage, etc.

– Which criteria are the most important? What represents “good” or “bad” in each category?

Criteria for movies• What are some criteria for evaluating

movies? – Acting– Plots– Special Effects– Historical accuracy– Cinematography– Writing

Detail• Avoid unsubstantiated opinions or

generalizations. – Jenny is highly qualified for this position;

that’s just my opinion.• Give specific details to support your

opinions.

Levels of Detail• There are three levels of detail:

– Physical Details– Emotional Details– Critical Details

Physical Details• Things that can be observed with the five

senses—seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting.– Dead Poets Society opens with a lovely view

of the campus. The camera slowly pans over majestic oak trees…The season is Autumn…

• Physical details are facts that can be verified.

One Minute Writing #1• Write a sentence with lots of physical

details.

Emotional Details• Feelings, intuitions, and the like that can’t be

verified by the senses.– Many of the scenes take place in huge, Gothic-style

buildings that evoke strong feelings of reverence. This style of architecture makes one feel small and in the presence of greatness.

– One watches Old School for one reason—to forget about real life for awhile and revel in absurd but amusing fantasy.

One Minute Writing #2• Write a sentence with emotional details

based on the sentence you wrote earlier.

Critical Details• An inquiry into the motives, reasons, or causes

for internal details. They try to explain why you feel a certain way towards something.– The gloomy and majestic architecture helps set the

tone for the rest of the movie, which is about fragile human spirits confronted with the overwhelming majesty of sacred tradition and reverence for ancient authority.

– A Beautiful Mind is part of a recent trend of solipsistic fantasies—what if the “real world” wasn’t real at all? This fear can perhaps be explained by growing skepticism about the government and all types of “official information.”

One Minute Writing #3• Write a sentence with critical details based

on your previous sentences.

A Balance of Details• Think about these levels of detail working

together in a paper:– Physical Details provide the foundation; without

them, nothing else makes any sense. – Emotional details offer an interpretation or

demonstrate the relevance of the physical details. “The bare facts” do not mean anything unless they provoke an emotional response.

– Critical details weave together physical and emotional details and explain why as well as what.

Examples of Details • Let’s examine James Barardinelli’s review

of his favorite movie, Patton, for examples of these types of detail.

Physical Details• Aside from the campaigns he waged in North

Africa, Sicily, and across Europe, the general is perhaps best remembered for an incident when he slapped an enlisted man.

• The film opens in 1943 North Africa, with a brutal look at American casualties at the battle of Kasserine. Patton arrives from Morocco to take command the U.S. army in Tunisia in preparation for fighting Rommel (Karl Michael Vogler) at el Gitar.

Emotional Details• Patton was neither cold nor insensitive - he cared deeply

about those under his command who stood in the face of enemy fire and refused to yield.

• The viewer's attention is riveted to the screen, and only when the final credits roll do external distractions reassert themselves.

Critical Details• Those who have not seen Patton, or who have not

watched the film carefully, might assume that this movie is about World War Two and one of its most celebrated generals. In fact, they would be only partially correct. What Patton sets out to do is to demythicize its subject and show the forces that drove this man.

• Patton was an anachronism - a man who belonged in another time. He was a warrior living in a time when victory in battle no longer meant the triumph it once had, a Roman conqueror who understood the meaning of the words that "all glory is fleeting.”

Knowing the Difference• Weave together physical, emotional, and

critical details.• Critical and emotional details must be built

on physical or “specific” details. • Always offer specific, concrete evidence

for your opinions and arguments.

Building Details• Argument:

– Jenny is a valuable asset to our company and should be promoted to a managerial position.

• Physical Detail:– She is the first person her colleagues turn to when they need help

solving problems with their computers. Just last week, Jenny stayed three hours overtime just to help her supervisor install new budgeting software. She is consulted before every software purchasing decision.

• Emotional Detail:– I strongly feel that Jenny will continue to provide quality service and is

ready and able to assume additional responsibilities at our company. She is friendly, direct, helpful, and eminently professional.

• Critical Detail:– Many members of our managerial staff have dedication, but lack the

special knowledge required to really modernize our company and propel us towards the future. Jenny has both the dedication and the knowledge to make far-reaching and exciting changes to our organization.

Workshop – Picking Out Details• Pick out the specific and concrete details in this

piece from the New York Times:– CAMBY, Ind. - Until the fourth trip to the hospital in

1998, Zachery Dorsett's parents thought their son was an average child who was having trouble getting over a passing illness. He was 7 months old, and it was his second case of pneumonia.

– The Dorsetts, Sharon and Arnold, were concerned about Zachery's health, but they were not worried about the financial consequences. They were a young, middle-income couple, with health insurance that covered 90 percent of doctors' bills and most of the costs of prescription drugs.

The Ladder of Abstraction

A few caveats about reviews…• Here are a few things to watch for when

writing and peer reviewing:– Did you spend too much time summarizing

instead of evaluating?– Did you provide enough specific detail to

support generalizations?– Did you have intelligent and thoughtful things

to say? Is the review insightful, or mere fluff?

Good luck!• A few last tips:

– Consider working with a partner or a team. Two heads are better than one.

– Ensure that your thesis statement isn’t too broad: “This movie was great.”

– Choose three scenes that really epitomize your focus and describe them adequately.

– Consider purchasing the DVD so you can easily watch key scenes repeatedly.