Many students don’t know how to write an evaluation of something in their essays. There are some rules that you should follow while writing this type of paper. First of all, you should start with a strict plan.
Plan of How to Write an Evaluation Essay Step by Step
- Introduction (2-3 sentences leading to the topic of the peer-reviewed text).
- The problem raised in the text.
- A comment.
- Author’s position.
- Position of the student on the issue raised in the text (consent, disagreement, partial disagreement, ambiguous or contradictory assessment).
- Arguments that confirm or disprove the author’s position (the student includes at least two arguments, based on his or her life and (or) the reader’s experience).
- Conclusion (1-2 sentences should give completeness to the composition, link it to the source text).
How to Start an Evaluation Essay
- You can start with brief information about the author, and about his or her work, if it is relevant to the text.
Examples: Oscar Wilde is one of the amazing masters of the artistic word, his works instill in us a reverent attitude to nature, the ability to see the beautiful in the surrounding world. So the text I read carries me to…
But in this text the author appears in the unexpected role of a philosopher for me and reflects on the “mirror” connection between man and nature.
- You can start from a long series of homogeneous members of the sentence with a generalizing word (as homogeneous terms, abstract nouns are used most often, denoting concepts related to the theme of the text).
Examples: Faith, hope, love (loyalty, devotion, friendship, mutual aid, mercy, etc.) — without these moral categories it is impossible to imagine a person’s spiritual life. A well-known modern publicist in his article shares his thoughts with readers about the fact that …
- You can use two or three rhetorical questions leading to the topic or the main idea of the text (in questions it is appropriate to use the antonyms).
Examples: How, in our age of contradictions and social upheavals, can we not learn how to distinguish between true and false? How to understand what has a beneficial effect on the soul, and what corrupts, destroys it? How to distinguish culture from “pseudo-culture”? These complex philosophical problems are reflected in his article …
- You can start from you reflections on the issue raised by the author.
Examples: I have often thought about the fact that the most important life concepts are very difficult to explain in words. Love, faith, happiness — it is impossible to live without these moral categories, and it is not so easy to give a “definition” to them. In this text, the author proposes to reflect on the role …
Comments
- The text says (narrates, describes, the author reflects, argues, etc.) …
- In a small volume of the article, the author touches upon several important problems: …
- In the peer-reviewed text, one can note a high “density of thought”: the author speaks not only of … but also of …. Such a semantic capacity is achieved by the author with the help of ….
- The author does not formulate the main idea of his or her article, but the whole course of reasoning leads us to the conclusion: ….
- After reading the text, I came to a conclusion (I understood the author’s position).
- The content of the text is much wider than its theme. Talking about the topic, the author means …
How to Comment on the Author’s Position
You can comment on the author’s position skilfully using partial citation.
For example:
- The author comes to an interesting, unexpected conclusion: “Masterpieces exist not only in art, but also in nature.”
- S. Smith shares his thoughts with readers about the belief that faith is “the most important function of the soul.” The author unobtrusively, without excessive edification, proves that without this “transfer mechanism” between the mind and the heart, the “soul” of a person will “die.”
Samples for expressing one’s own opinion on the read
Key phrases for the text on an actual topic:
• I have often thought about that and therefore the topic of the text is close and understandable to me.
• In spite of the fact that earlier I thought a lot about the topic, it seemed interesting and unexpected to me.
• The topic of the text is close and understandable to me, because I have myself experienced similar feelings many times (I was turned out in such a situation).
• The problem will not help, but only worry my contemporaries. A well known publicist talked about this issue in his article.
Key phrases for popular science texts:
• At the lessons, I studied in the section …, so the problem, which the author of the text speaks about, is familiar to me (understandable).
• The author speaks about complex scientific concepts, using general scientific terms (examples).
• To make his point of view more demonstrative, the author quotes (referring to the opinion) such well-known … as …
• Although the text at first seemed difficult to me, after reading it a second time, I realized that …
• I have never read about …, so the text … interested me, I learned a lot about ..
Key phrases to the text on a topic far from the interests of the student:
• Having read the text (the author), I caught myself thinking that I had never thought about …
• The interesting and unexpected thought of the author seemed to me …
• My poor life experience does not allow me express a clear position on this issue. But after reading the text, I thought about … (I learned that)
• I have never thought about this problem before, and I’m afraid my position will seem vague.
• Therefore, I have to agree with the author, who was able to tell about …
So, now you know how to write an introduction for an evaluation essay, how to comment on the author’s position and how to use key phrases to write an essay successfully. Now, you are able to write your own evaluation essay without any problems.