Assignment Two: Evaluation and Review

English 102: Assignment Two
Evaluation Argument

What You’ll Be Doing--Description:
In this assignment you’ll be writing a review/evaluation of some person, product, policy, event, or action. You will ground your work in a system of criteria, and will hold the product, policy, or action up against that system. It will also be necessary to demonstrate that the system of values that you are applying is necessarily situated within a particular social context.

What We Hope To Accomplish--Goals:
In this assignment, students will be familiarized with methods of evaluation, and will also necessarily encounter how those systems are situated within (or extensions of) particular communities. We will explore arguments of value, focusing specifically on evidence as it functions within evaluation arguments. Finally, students will make use of outside sources, conducting meaningful research and incorporating that research into their essay following MLA guidelines.

How You’ll Be Doing It--Composition:
The first step is probably to decide on a subject. What person, product, policy, event, or action has recently alarmed you? Which has excited or interested you? Which has disappointed you?

After deciding on the subject, it’s important to explore what causes your reaction to the subject. Are there specific values that you subscribe to in relation to this subject? Are those values fixed, or are they elastic? Hopefully you can develop a set list of criteria that you might apply to any manifestation of the subject. If you can rank those criteria (most important to least) then you also have a system of values.

Next, you’ll need to apply that system of values to the subject you’re evaluating. How does this subject achieve, or fall short of, fulfilling those criteria? How does it measure up to others of its kind? Finally, you’ll need to reflect on where that system of values comes from? Who else holds these values? What are some of the other systems out there? Who ascribes to those beliefs? Why? Is your system better than others, or are these systems arbitrary or situational in nature?

When composing your paper, keep in mind that the final product must:

• State your position on the person, product, policy, event, or action.
• Clearly state as well any competing positions that are relevant to the situation. It should also state the evaluative criteria (the values) that are at stake in this argument, defend or attack these, and show how they are at work in the various positions taken in the argument.
• Consider alternative views and counter-arguments where relevant, and provide any and all evidence that is persuasive for the arguments you advance in support of your case.
• Evaluate the quality of the evidence presented by parties who do not agree with your evaluation of the position, action, or policy.

What It Should Look Like--Constraints:

• Length: long enough to satisfactorily fulfill the requirements of the assignment; most successful papers are between three and five pages, but remember: a two-page paper could hypothetically receive a passing grade and a fourteen-page paper could fail. Both scenarios seem to be anomalies.
• Please type (12 point font) your paper and double space it using one-inch margins; this requirement is not an arbitrary obsession with form. Studies have shown that teachers react in different ways to different formatting. By standardizing your paper format, I can guarantee us both an equitable reading of your work.
• The paper should use and document at least five authoritative sources, using standard MLA style.
• Give your work a title.