If you having no idea on what to write in evaluation essays, you must read this article. We are going to discuss everything that you should know about writing an evaluation essay. Some students confuse this type of essay with a review, and it’s actually not such a mistake. An evaluation is quite similar to a review. Below, you will find useful information on how to write an evaluation essay.
What Is Not an Evaluation Essay?
When you are a child, you divide things into the categories “good” and “bad.” The bad news is that you are not a child anymore and you should be more specific when evaluating things. This means that you shouldn’t profess your opinion in the essay the following way:
“I didn’t like this fantasy book. It was boring. All fantasy books are boring for me. I’d rather read a detective story next time.”
You can say something of this nature to your friends. However, you shouldn’t express your thoughts this way when talking about academic papers. Also, you should remember that your task is not to retell the story. So, let’s make a conclusion on what shouldn’t be in your evaluation essay:
- Just a retelling of the book, film, performance or any other thing you would like to evaluate.
- Expressing your opinion without supportive arguments.
- Providing evidence that is too subjective.
We hope this section will help you to avoid the wrong path in writing your essay. Further, we will discuss on what to write an evaluation and how.
How to Write an Evaluation Essay
Step 1: Decide on the topic.
What are you going to evaluate? This can be a book, a movie, a musical or theatre performance, a restaurant, museum, park, website or anything else. It’s not obligatory to analyze material objects. Events can also be evaluated. It’s better to analyze something that you have recently experienced so that your memories were fresh. Or, if you have enough time, you can do the activity which you will further evaluate in your essay — read a book, watch film or visit an unfamiliar restaurant. If you are lacking time, discuss your favorite book, movie or restaurant. It will take you less time to analyze well-known things.
Step 2: Find the “etalon.”
It will be easier for you to evaluate something if you compare it to other points from this category. Imagine that you need to assess a hotel. You should find the best hotel of the same category and similar pricing policy. Afterward, you should compare the hotel you’ve visited and the “etalon” hotel. Of course, you can’t be aware of all hotels of the world. Therefore, we recommend you to narrow the list of hotels which you will compare. For example, you can compare four-star hotels within one city, which are animal-friendly and those which offer spa service.
A note: when you are comparing things, don’t compare things which initially belong to different classes. Accordingly, you shouldn’t compare three-star and five-star hotels.
Step 3: Choose criteria.
How to write an evaluation essay when you don’t know which benchmarks to compare? It’s difficult! Therefore, before writing, you need to decide on which criteria you will discuss. Criteria can be very different. It depends on your topic. We’ll give the example of criteria which you can use to evaluate hotels:
- Room
- Bathroom
- Food
- Services
- Front desk
- Public areas
- Access
- Exterior
- Communication
- Safety
Each of these criteria should be properly revealed in your paper. You can choose other benchmarks for hotels if you would like to.
Step 4: Make a table.
Make a table with three columns. In the first one, you will specify criteria. The second one is devoted to the point you are going to discuss (in our case, it’s a hotel). The third column should be dedicated to the “etalon” point. Fill these columns with short answers without giving supportive arguments. That way, you will see the whole picture before writing and hopefully it will help you to cope with your task faster. Due to this table, you won’t need to think on what to write in evaluation essays each time you finish one paragraph because you can use the table as a plan.
Step 5: Compose the essay.
All preparations are done so it’s time for writing. While writing, you should remember the following principles:
1) Each claim should be supported with evidence. If you are saying that a hotel is an inappropriate place for families with little kids, you should say that power plugs and sockets are not safe for children or that there are no playrooms for children in the hotel. Make sure that all your claims are not unsubstantiated.
2) Don’t mix different criteria. Evaluate the point from different sides step-by-step. Don’t try to write about everything at once. At the beginning of your paper, you should state the main idea. In further paragraphs, you explain why you decided so.
3) Don’t write new information in the conclusion. Conclusion is almost the same as your thesis in other words. The only difference is that you can suggest how to improve something in your conclusion.
4) Always check the grammar. After completing an essay, you should revise the paper. Check the spelling, punctuation, word choice and other points. If you don’t know how to revise your essay, read our articles on this topic in our blog.
Last Cautions
Hopefully, our tips on how to write an evaluation essay in a logical way will help you to complete your paper. If any question arises, you can contact us for additional help. WriteMyEssayOnline.com is a service which is always ready to provide students with additional assistance. You should only describe the problem and we will try to solve it with you. Our team of experienced writers can provide students of all levels with help. There’s no need to wait anymore to ask for assistance — contact us as soon as possible and get a paper for you!