Free Guidance on How to Write a Perfect Evaluation Essay

An evaluative essay deals with analysis and evaluation of something. The writer focuses on a topic, analyzes it with research, and gives an appraisal. It’s quite similar to a persuasive essay. The main difference between the papers is that writing an evaluative paper is more objective.

This kind of academic paper can be extremely interesting for writing. After all, it’s not just the research or analysis of information, but actually your assessment of the issue. An evaluation essay is an assignment of making a judgment. You should be pretty specific on this assignment, make an only positive or negative value judgment. No comparison, you look at one thing. In order to make these judgments, you should set criteria for assessment.

Criteria Selection

It’s a key element. Of course, you won’t write about the criteria in the text. However, this will help to systematize parts of your essay. Each block of information or paragraph will be related to a specific feature of your issue. The selection of criteria should be made so that you can give a positive or negative evaluation. In addition, it does not preempt your paper with lots of opinions.

An evaluation essay is subjective writing because you choose the criteria by your own seizure. The features of the topic can be very diverse, and for each of them, you can choose a criterion for assessment. Do not describe all the possible options; choose only the most important to you.

Interconnection

A good evaluation essay follows the formula: criterion-judgment-confirmation. For each of the selected criterion, you write your own judgment on how good something is or not. This part is also subjective since you are voicing a personal opinion. The final stage is evidence. They are the basis for the decision and confirm your judgment.

Structure

The most common structure is a 5-paragraph essay. The first paragraph should be an introduction. It contains the topic you are addressing and what you will be appraising. Try to use a hook to grab attention. You can use some historical background or famous people’s citations. But it’s better to get some interesting and not well-known facts about the issue that allures the reader. Finish the paragraph with a thesis statement, because the subsequent paragraphs will unfold it.

The second paragraph is your body paragraph. The body presents the most compelling research for your stance. Here you provide criteria and judgment. Remember, support it by evidence to strengthen your position. Use one paragraph for only one criterion.

If you are writing using a 5-paragraph structure, you will use two body parts for your evaluation and one to reveal refutation of opposing views. It contains an argument the opposing side might make, along with research dispelling that argument. The conclusion summarizes all arguments and reiterates the stance you are taking regarding the issue.

Several Examples of an Evaluation Essay

The structure and general recommendations are acceptable for writing an evaluation essay on any topic. There are many objects that can become a topic for your assignment. To do this, you need to define a category. The next stage is the criteria. You can develop your own list or ask for help with a review. As a rule, they already contain a basic list of criteria for a particular category of objects. Let’s look through several popular topics.

How to Write an Evaluation Essay on a Movie

The main task is to explore the content of the film. Before writing any statements, you need to understand what parts of the film you will evaluate. Among the criteria are:

• storyline;
• sequence and logic of events;
• characters and actors play;
• work of the director;
• special effects;
• props;
• costumes;
• music;
• conformity between a film and a book.

A genre is the definitional feature of a film. So you can pick up more precise criteria for research. Remember that you do not compare some kind of movie to another, you are dissecting the options of a potentially ideal movie for you specifically. After all, for other people, it can be quite different.

How to Write an Evaluation Argument Essay

Your essay is connected with the investigation of an already written academic paper. The main purpose is not to challenge the author’s opinion, not to support or disprove his or her point of view, but to evaluate the arguments by which he or she appeals.

Analyze what arguments the author uses and classify them. Each argument should be considered from the position of strength and weakness. Evaluate how well the argument copes with its task, is it convincing enough? So your paper will consist of paragraphs where you evaluate the strengths of the arguments and at least one with weaknesses. To confirm your assessment, use quotes or rephrase sentences to avoid plagiarism.

How to Write an Evaluation Essay on a Restaurant

The best advice is: visit the restaurant! First find out what type of restaurant it is, what cuisine and a way of serving it offers. Now imagine your ideal restaurant of this type. Make a list of the criteria that you want to include in your essay and take it with you to the restaurant. Writing a list will help you to draw on the points of interest and not to miss anything. In addition to reading reviews on the Internet, do not be afraid to ask the opinion of visitors near you.

The most common criteria (you can add yours):

• food;
• quality of products;
• price;
• atmosphere;
• purity;
• service.

How to Write an Evaluation Essay on a Website

An assessment of a website is increasingly relevant in connection with the development of the Internet. Such an enactment occurs both for academic purposes and for business and marketing. The site is developed by programmers, designers, writers, etc. For them, this is the definition of quality and level of their work. Criteria can be:

• interface;
• navigation;
• design;
• content.