Essay #2: The Evaluative Review
In our culture today, few of us buy anything without reading reviews first. Whether you’re looking for a
new pair of shoes, trying out a new restaurant, or deciding which professor’s class to take, you are
likely reading review on sites like Amazon, Yelp, and Rate My Professor to help you make your
decisions. We do this because as consumers, we enjoy sharing our opinions and reading those of
others. Book reviews, play reviews, film reviews, and more have graced our newspapers and magazines
for generations.
The purpose of a review is to evaluate something. One might say that a play was poorly produced or
horribly acted. One could argue that a certain book is the best in its genre or that a movie is not worth
seeing. All of these are evaluations.
For your second essay, I am asking you to choose something to evaluate so that you can write a formal
review, much like those that you read. You may choose anything worth evaluating. For instance, you
can choose to evaluate a performance (concert, comedy show, play, film, etc.), a person (politician,
actor, doctor, mechanic, musician, etc.), a product (shoes, books, vehicles, sports gear, etc.), a place
(hotel, concert venue, school, travel location, store, restaurant, camp, etc.), and more. So long as you
have experienced the topic first-hand and can establish criteria and make an evaluation of the item, it
should work as a topic.
Your essay must include the following:
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A narrow, focused thesis expressing your evaluation of the topic as well as your criteria for
evaluation
At least three solid criteria for evaluation
Supporting paragraphs explaining each of the criteria
Strong examples and details helping to illustrate and explain your evaluation
NO RESEARCH
Getting Started:
1. Make a list of topics that interest you. Consider new music you’ve heard, an artist you like, a
show you went to, a restaurant you have tried, etc.
2. Choose the topic that most interests you and about which you have the most to say.
3. List a series of adjectives (positive and negative) you would use to describe the topic, and
choose one to help you decide what you want your judgment of the topic to be.
4. Develop a list of criteria one would use to evaluate objects like this (for instance, when
evaluating a concert venue, criteria such as acoustics, amenities for guests, seating, ability to
see the performer, ambience, parking, etc.)
5. Consider whom your audience will be.
6. Brainstorm some stories and examples you have about the item that will help you illustrate
your discussion.
Formatting Requirements:
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Essays should be typed, double spaced, printed, and formatted according to MLA Guidelines.
Use 12 point font, and include one inch margins on all sides.
Rough drafts should be at least three pages but no more than six; final drafts should be four to six
pages.
All work must be your original work written specifically for this assignment.
Essays, cover letters, and peer response should all be printed out and submitted in a folder.
Due Dates:
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Topic due Monday, September 29th.
One page of freewriting/prewriting due Wednesday, October 1st.
Rough draft due with Cover Letter (details below) due Wednesday, October 8th.
Final draft due later in the semester.
Cover Letter
For each paper you write in this class, you will be writing a cover letter. The cover letter should be at least half a
page, and it should accomplish the following:
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Introduce the paper to your readers: How would you summarize your paper in one or two sentences?
Discuss what you feel the paper’s strengths are. What are you happy with? What are you particularly
proud of? (Find something, even if you’re generally unhappy with how it turned out.)
Discuss what your paper’s weaknesses are. What do you already know you will be working on in your
revisions? Which sections are you unsure about?
Include questions you have for your readers, and discuss where you would like them to focus their
feedback. You might ask about sections you are unsure of like your conclusion or transitions, for
example. Please keep in mind that for rough drafts, we won’t be focusing on grammar, punctuation,
or other sentence-level errors. Right now, the focus, development, structure, and cohesiveness of the
draft are what are most important.