Evaluation Paper
This paper requires you to write a bit more than the first two did. In this paper, I want you to produce at least three full pages (about 750 words) of discussion.
In your professional life you are likely to be asked to evaluate something. For example, your boss might come to you and tell you to go out and research a database software, a production process, a new type of office equipment, or the market conditions relating to investing or opening an office in a certain city. In all these situations, you're being asked to choose the best of something, and sometimes there's an implicit request that you tell how to avoid the worst of something. The point is this: evaluations are very likely to be one of the more important and often-occurring tasks you are asked to perform as you go out into the real world of work.
What I'm asking you to do in the evaluation exercise, then, is intended to prepare you for what your work life--in or out of academe--is very likely to ask of you. This exercise is meant, in other words, to have a practical application.
What I want you to do, then, is to choose EITHER three readings from Everything's an argument OR at least two readings from your text PLUS an outside source or reading (it can be an article, a film, a work of visual art, a poem, a song, or any other coherent statement that functions as an evaluative argument) and use the many ideas I've presented to you in class to respond to the evaluative arguments you find. In other words, I want you to analyze the evaluative arguments you find. You should be very careful to tell me explicitly what pieces from your text you are using, and you should be equally as clear in telling me what outside sources you are consulting.
Here's the hard part: the sources you evaluate don't have to all be evaluating the same thing, the same topic; they can be evaluating very different things. One could be evaluating what it means to be a patriot, for example, and another could be evaluating what is the worst thing about how women (or men) are presented in popular media. What I want to see you do, for the sake of the exercise, is to tie together different types of evaluation as you build your discussion.
If this sounds challenging, then that's a good thing. Based on what I've seen in your writing, I think you can do what I'm asking you to do. What I'm asking is that you choose some evaluative arguments and focus on telling me how the evaluations work--in the space of a three-page paper. If you use outside source(s), remember to document them properly.
If you are at all unclear about what I'm asking from you, please ask for clarification. Thanks for your hard work!
In your professional life you are likely to be asked to evaluate something. For example, your boss might come to you and tell you to go out and research a database software, a production process, a new type of office equipment, or the market conditions relating to investing or opening an office in a certain city. In all these situations, you're being asked to choose the best of something, and sometimes there's an implicit request that you tell how to avoid the worst of something. The point is this: evaluations are very likely to be one of the more important and often-occurring tasks you are asked to perform as you go out into the real world of work.
What I'm asking you to do in the evaluation exercise, then, is intended to prepare you for what your work life--in or out of academe--is very likely to ask of you. This exercise is meant, in other words, to have a practical application.
What I want you to do, then, is to choose EITHER three readings from Everything's an argument OR at least two readings from your text PLUS an outside source or reading (it can be an article, a film, a work of visual art, a poem, a song, or any other coherent statement that functions as an evaluative argument) and use the many ideas I've presented to you in class to respond to the evaluative arguments you find. In other words, I want you to analyze the evaluative arguments you find. You should be very careful to tell me explicitly what pieces from your text you are using, and you should be equally as clear in telling me what outside sources you are consulting.
Here's the hard part: the sources you evaluate don't have to all be evaluating the same thing, the same topic; they can be evaluating very different things. One could be evaluating what it means to be a patriot, for example, and another could be evaluating what is the worst thing about how women (or men) are presented in popular media. What I want to see you do, for the sake of the exercise, is to tie together different types of evaluation as you build your discussion.
If this sounds challenging, then that's a good thing. Based on what I've seen in your writing, I think you can do what I'm asking you to do. What I'm asking is that you choose some evaluative arguments and focus on telling me how the evaluations work--in the space of a three-page paper. If you use outside source(s), remember to document them properly.
If you are at all unclear about what I'm asking from you, please ask for clarification. Thanks for your hard work!
posted by Michael Saunders at 4:51 AM
4 Comments:
I am really looking forward to writing this paper. I feel that it will really enrich my mind and make me a smarter individual. Thank you for giving me this opportunity!
The more I write and read, the more I think that becoming a writer is like becoming a musician or a singer. To become accomplished at any of these activities, you first need talent, but you also need to apply any talent you have through frequent exercise.
If they were to practice enough, most people could learn to scratch out a tune on a fiddle, but few people become accomplished violinists, and fewer still become great ones. Not all of us have the same gifts, and part of growing up is seeing how true that is.
Now matter how much talent you have, you never get anywhere with that talent if you don't practice, don't work hard and don't commit yourself to believing that what you're doing is worth something. Committing to practice in anything means being willing to leave your comfort zone. If you don't acquire the discipline of practice at many things, you are likely to stagnate in many areas of your life.
If you don't believe in the virtues of practice, if you don't recognize the values of talent and skill, college is not the place for you. If you're willing to commit yourself with an open mind to staying focused, letting go of distractions and working hard, you can gain something that will be limited only by your commitment to it.
Good luck in your work.
In our paper, you say you want us "to tie together different types of evaluation as you build your discussion."
I am writing about bilingualism and religion,two completely unrelated topics. How can I tie two unrelated topics together?
Do you want us to show how the topics relate to each other, or to show how the evaluative arguments are related in structure and format?
After I write my paragraphs analzying each argument, would it be reasonable to include another paragraph dicussing how the arguments are related in structure?
What ties your sources together is that they are all evaluative arguments. So the theme of your paper is looking at evaluative arguments, observing how they work and responding to the content of the arguments themselves. You only have to relate your three source arguments by saying that they are all evaluations.
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