Evaluation Essay:

For your evaluation essay, chooseone movie, tv episode, book, or website to evaluate. Note that you are choosing a single piece, not a collection of movies, not an entire tv show, not a series of books, etc. You should choose one specific piece for this essay so that you have specific criteria and content.

Audience:general

Purpose: to argue a judgement of a piece of media using specific criteria

Sources needed:three + (one primary, and at least two secondary)

Drafting (refer to pages340-342 in Field Guide)

Now is the time to begin the next step in the writing process: your first draft.  Make sure you have a clear thesis statement that guides your writing, but remember your thesis statement may change after writing your draft.

To get started, look back at youroutline and the comments you got from your instructor.  Using the criteria and details you outlined, write your paper. Think specifically how the media you have chosen meets or fails to meet the criteria you have chosen. Consider the following:

1. What evidence should I use for each criteria and detail?
2. How will I organize each paragraph so that the details about each criterion is clear?
3. What transition words can I use to signal to the reader my evidence?
4. Have I successfully chosen criteria that is applicable to the type of media my source belongs to?
5. Have I successfully found objective evidence for the criteria and refrained from using personal taste as judgment?

Essay Overview

First Paragraph: Introduction

Your introduction should clearly introduce the mediayou are evaluating, offer a brief summary of the piece or some background information, and contain a thesis statement that precisely argues your evaluation of the piece. Your introduction sets up your entire essay.

Sample Thesis Statement:Although the situations Juno’s characters find themselves in and their dialogue may be criticized as unrealistic, the film, written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman, successfully portrays the emotions of a teen being shoved into maturity way too fast.

Important Note: This is the only paragraph that should contain summary information. This is not a summary/book report essay. It is an evaluation that makes and argument/judgment about the piece. The brief summary in the intro should be just enough to set up the paper, and no more.

*Refer to pages 373-380 in your Field Guide for additional information on how to begin your essay.

Multiple Body Paragraphs:Your criteria and supporting details

The body paragraphs focus on the criteria you decide to use to evaluate your subject.

You should focus on one criterion per paragraph. The topic sentence should state the criteria and your judgement about that criteria.

Sample Topic Sentence:Juno’s dialogue is too good to be true—funny and clever, but unrealistic.

In the body of each paragraph, you should use evidence from the primary source to prove your evaluation of that specific criteria is valid.

You should also use evidence from your secondary sources in at least some of the body paragraphs to help support your evaluations. Be careful not to let these sources take over your own!

When you quote from the primary and secondary sources, be sure the quotes are integrated into your sentences. No quote bombing!

Close each body paragraph with a final thought, usually highlighting your judgment on the criteria in that paragraph.

Sample Concluding Sentence:As funny as they are, the creatively quirky one-liners often go a bit too far, detracting from both the gravity of Juno’s situation and the film’s believability.

Final Paragraph: Conclusion

Your conclusion wraps up your argument in the evaluation and reminds the reader what your overall judgment is and why.  The conclusion can reflect back to your introduction and the body paragraphs but should not repeat exactly what you have said before.  You also want to avoid presenting brand new information in your conclusion.

*Refer to pages 380-385 in your Field Guide for additional information regarding conclusions.

Quoting:

A warning about quoting:  at this point none of your quotes should be longer than two lines.  Learning how to appropriately integrate a quote is an important skill to acquire; therefore, we will practice this very important skill all semester.  Remember to:

• Integrate your quoted material;
• Document the source appropriately;
• Properly indicate any changes made to the quote;

*For more information on properly integrating quotes, paraphrasing, and summarizing read pages 107-110 in LS and pages 528-543, 503-509 in Field Guide.

Works Cited:

The last page of your essay must have a properly formatted Work(s) Cited page.  The Work(s) Cited page is on its own page. For more information on properly citing your sources for your Works Cited page, refer to pages 519-537 and 547 in Field Guide.

Checklist

• You have an interesting title.
• Your introduction contains a clear thesis statement and gives the reader a preview of what you are going to be discussing (it should include the subject you are evaluating and the criteria you will use in the order you will discuss them in the paper). Your introduction is interesting and engaging, and you have applied one of the methods for writing an effective introduction found in Field Guide.
• Your introduction does not contain any language that announces what you are getting ready to say (e. this essay is going to discuss, this essay will tell you…)
• Each body paragraph discusses one of your criteria, using multiple examples and evidence from the primary source as proof.
• Each point and supporting detail you include can be linked directly to your thesis statement.
• You have at least six paragraphs.
• You have used one primary source and at least two secondary sources.
• There are direct quotes or paraphrasesfrom the primary source in each body paragraph.
• There are direct quotes or paraphrases from the secondary sources in at least some of the body paragraphs.
• Your quotes are properly integrated.
• Your conclusion does not announce that it is a conclusion (do not use “In conclusion” or anything similar) and utilizes one of the methods for writing an effective conclusion found in Field Guide.
• There is no use of first or second person.
• There is no use of contractions (i.e. can’t, won’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t).
• The paper is 750-1000 words in length.
• You have an MLA style formatted essay and Works Cited page.

Once you have completed all these steps, you have a complete essay, but you are not finished.

Revising

As we have discussed, it is important to get others to take a look at what you have written.  Because our ideas live in our heads and are clear to us, sometimes the message gets lost in translation.  Others can look at what we’ve written without knowing what we know and that in turn provides us with valuable information.

To help you prepare for this part of the writing process, each of you will participate in peer review via Blackboard.

Editing

Now that you’ve made revisions, it’s time to start editing.  During the editing phrase, you are working on details, word choice, transitions, and punctuation. For more detailed information refer to pages 313-316 in Field Guide.

Proofreading

This is the final stage of the writing process.  At this point you are dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, checking and double checking for misspelled words, shifts in fonts, and the format.  For more information refer to pages 316-317 in Field Guide.

When you have completed all these steps, you are ready to submit your essay to Blackboard in a Word doc format.