Project Four: Evaluation

Description

In a fashion similar to the Definition assignment, this project asks you to engage another question that commonly arises in argumentation: “What is the quality of something?” The following are rhetorical situations that might give you some ideas for developing the issue and the purpose for your evaluation. Note that arguments about consumer products are not appropriate for this assignment

1. You might evaluate some aspect of current politics: the quality of a current policy, the importance of a recent Supreme Court decision, or a hometown issue worthy of attention. You might also evaluate a particular trend or more general decision that has been made by governmental entities.

2. You might evaluate the policies or procedures of non-governmental entities, such as those of a professional sports association, a school, or anything other organization that impacts a significant number of people.

3. You might make an aesthetic evaluation of a musical group or a particular album or a play or a movie.

Invention

Your invention process will include creating a thesis statement which puts the term or concept you are defining into a category. That category may redefine the way your audience understands the subject or it may broaden and deepen their understanding. The thesis statement will make a claim about either the nature or the quality of something.

You will also develop criteria for evaluating the thing under discussion, and then present supporting details to show how it does or does not fit the criteria. Exploring what others have said or are saying about the topic—testimony and authority—will improve your credibility and the effectiveness of your evaluation.

Composition

Your evaluation might take the form of an editorial for your local newspaper or a post to a blob or website that attends to the topic or issue your evaluating here; whatever genre or publication route you choose, be sure to address the needs and concerns of that audience when composing your evaluation.