English 1010

Project 2

Evaluations (aka Reviews)

Length: 2-3 pages

Format: MLA

Sources:  This depends om the topic you choose: music, TV (even streaming shows), movies will all require citations. Live performances should be cited as well. If you choose to review a product or a place, you may not have any sources to cite. Apps currently require no citation. Note that no further research is required; however, if you do any and you use those sources, you must cite them according to MLA guidelines.

Date Due: See Course Calendar

Introduction:

We all engage in the process of evaluation every day, mostly on an informal level.  We hear a song, we quickly decide whether we like it or not (sometimes they grow on us, but usually we’re either hooked from the first listen or we’re not).  We try a new food and quickly determine whether it is “good” or “bad.”

But when we evaluate material on a more formal level, we have to get beyond our own personal taste, our likes and dislikes.  We must determine a set of criteria for evaluating the material.  Then we must analyze the material according to those criteria, looking beyond the surface and thinking more intellectually about the subject than we otherwise might. This analysis and critical thinking will lead to a final determination about the overall quality or success of our subject.

And our final determination, the main idea of our evaluation, is most likely not going to be one that decrees whether the material is good or bad. An evaluative thesis does not need to be, and generally will not be, entirely positive or negative.  Because when we evaluate, we usually find evidence of both.  For instance, a movie can feature fantastic acting and beautiful cinematography, but the story itself may be unbelievable, or a vital element of the plot may be confusing.

Your Task:

• Write an essay in which you evaluate a subject. You may choose a product, a place, an app, a live performance, a TV show, a movie, music, or game.
• You must determine some criteria on which to base your evaluation (see below) and then use those criteria to structure your analysis. Your thesis will convey the main point of your analysis.

Choosing a subject:  I encourage you to cast aside your personal favorites, as you need to maintain some level of objectivity. If you already know that you “love” or “hate” something you will look for ways to confirm your bias. Instead choose a subject about which you have no opinion.  Whatever you choose, you must write about it according to the following guidelines.

Determining Purpose and Developing Criteria

Step one in performing your evaluation is to determine the purpose of your subject. Ask yourself what your subject is attempting to do. For example, if you choose a movie or TV show, the broad, vague answer is that all TV shows and movies seek to entertain.  This is true, but not helpful to your analysis.  They seek to entertain us in all kinds of ways:  to make us laugh, to appeal to our sentimentality, to shock us, to appeal to our baser instincts, to encourage us to ask questions and examine our own lives, to make us feel warm and comforted, the list goes on.

Once you know the purpose, you can then determine what criteria you should use to evaluate your subject and how it lives up to the expectation of its purpose. Criteria are “principles or standards by which a subject may be evaluated.” What expectations or standards can be used to determine the quality of your subject when you compare it to other examples in its genre? What makes an effective pop song? What makes an enthralling science fiction film? What makes a useful app?

Determining Evaluative Criteria:

1. Determine the purpose. Based on other examples of your subject, what should a successful version of it attempt to do?
2. Identify the target audience. Who are they? Age range, gender, economic status, education level can all influence how your subject will be viewed. What do they expect from a successful example of your topic?
3. What are the standards and expectations that successful examples of your topic demonstrate?
4. Remember to always consider aesthetics (the nature and appreciation of beauty). Regardless of your subject, visuals and design play a role. Evaluate them.
5. Based upon your answers to the questions above, create a list of criteria you can use to evaluate your subject. Your list may be long at first. You can decide which of the criteria to focus your attention on as you develop your draft.

Once you have answered the questions in part 1, you should have a working understanding of the purpose of your subject.  Now it’s time to dig deeper.

Developing Evaluative Criteria: Once you have determined your criteria, use the questions below to help you think more deeply about them in relation to your subject.

1. How, specifically, does the subject achieve its goal of meeting the criteria you determined? Identify specific elements of how your subject achieves or does not achieve this goal.  For example, the hit series This Is Us resonates with audiences because it moves back and forth in time, allowing us to see the characters not just as they are but as they were. This gives us the opportunity to see the characters as complex, dynamic, real people. We can identify with them, we begin to emotionally connect. This connection drives the show, and may well have created a new TV genre, as new shows debuting this fall are being labed “emotional dramas.”
2. Identify how your subject fails in some way to fully meet the criteria. How does it fall short, leaving the audience less than satisfied?  The new Chromebook by Google promises it can replace your current laptop, but as it’s OS is Android-based some of its features are not fully functional for a user who needs one laptop to do it all.
3. What goals does your subject ignore? Some criteria may not be flexible. In other words, if your subject fails to successfully meet that criteria, it may lead to a negative evaluation. For example, if you walked into a restaurant and the floors were dirty, flies were buzzing around everywhere, and your server was wearing a filthy apron, all of that could lead to you deciding not to even try the food. (Although if you were going to evaluate the restaurant you would have to try it, or pick another subject.)
4. Compare & contrast your subject with other similar subjects. What sets it apart?  What makes it more or less successful than other well-known examples? Why were Pearl Jam’s recent “Home Shows” so special? In order to answer that, I would first have to explain what makes a PJ show unique. Then I could compare and contrast the Seattle shows to what one normally expects from a Pearl Jam live set. I could also compare PJ shows to other concerts. What do we expect out of a concert? Part of the answer to that question has to do with genre. Pop shows are different from rock shows, and rap shows are entirely different, as are country. Going to the Symphony is entirely different from going to see Beyonce. They aren’t comparable. But comparing a Beyoncé show to a Lady Gaga show would be more relevant.
5. What is unique about your subject’s approach to achieving its goals? We are drawn to certain works of art, entertainment, or products because they are not only “good” but often because the creators take risks and break new ground. It’s not a requirement for success but it can often contribute to it.
   1. For instance, most TV shows that center around one character intend for us to like and root for that character. House, however, works against this expectation, giving us a protagonist who is unlikeable but whom we end up rooting for anyway, even if we wouldn’t want to have him over for dinner.
   2. Or, if not handled properly trying something new could fall flat. For instance Nikki Minaj’s new album and tour are not selling very well. Many critics say it is because she tried too hard and ended up with an awkward and uninteresting result with her newest album.

Considering Public Resonance:  To be successful, all the products we consume, whether they are entertainment or consumer products, must resonate with the public.  They influence us in many ways, often reflecting AND dictating issues or changes in our culture.  They contribute to our understanding of ourselves, our culture, our past, and our future. To help develop your evaluation you should consider its public resonance

1. How does your subject influence people’s lives? (The way we behave, think, perceive others, our speech, our fashion, our expectations of the world around us…)
2. Why is this subject important in people’s lives? (It may not be important to everyone, but if it has an audience it is important to them in some way.)
3. What do people expect from this subject and how well does it deliver on those expectations?

Thesis

The goal of your thesis is not to assert a value judgment (“good” or “bad”); the goal is to shed light on how specific elements contribute to the success or failure of the subject to achieve its goal.  Your thesis statement may contain a mixture of both positive and negative assessments, but the overall statement should convey something specific.

Avoid these common thesis problems:

1. Blurry Focus: You must have a specific subject, but you must also have something specific to say about it.  Do not fall back on empty assessments that ultimately tell us nothing.  As a thesis statement, “The Lord of the Rings is a great movie” is blurry in its focus.  What does “great” mean?  What does it tell us?  A more successful statement that asserts an evaluative claim would read, “Director Peter Jackson’s reverence for the material combined with his cinematic understanding that a literal book-to-movie translation is not possible work together to produce a movie that not only pays homage to the original text but that, for many, improves upon it.”
2. Stating the Obvious: Your goal with this essay is to encourage your reader to consider your subject in a new light.  Telling us what we already know or have heard before will not achieve that goal.  “People are crazy about the new iPhone” tells us nothing about the new iPhone.  The following statement says something more specific, “The new iPhone fails to impress due to the lack of any real innovation since the last version. While it is stylish and fun, that doesn’t justify trading in last year’s iPhone for this year’s, especially with the hefty price-tag.”
3. Fear of commitment: Evaluations are arguments, so you have to take a position.  Don’t try to play the middle, and don’t try to placate your audience.  For example, “The current TV trend, seen on Modern Family and The New Normal, depicting gay couples adopting children and living in domestic bliss will offend some people but will appeal to others” fails to assert a clear position.  Instead, “Current depictions of happily married gay couples raising children and encountering all the typical sitcom scenarios reflects the shift in our culture towards a more inclusive and accepting society.  Modern Family and The New Normal send the message that all that ruckus going on in the political arena is far removed from the real lives of not-so-typical but still comfortably familiar families.”

Rhetorical Tools:

1. Specific Details. Discuss your subject specifically.  Identify characters by name. Quote from the show, song, or movie. For products, consider design, packaging, advertising, and specific features.  If you are writing about a TV show, reference more than one episode.  You don’t need to engage in needless plot summary, but you should offer enough detail to help us clearly see and understand your ideas.
2. Connect with the world around you & your subject. Nothing happens in a vacuum.  TV, movies, music, technology reflect the world around them, comment on it, and engage in dialogue with it. New consumer products use advertising to appeal to their customers, and those appeals are generally rooted in what’s going on in our culture.  What outside issues, subjects, ideas can you connect to your subject?  Consider the following questions:
   1. Does a historical situation or trend illustrate something about my subject?
   2. What public issues does my subject address? How are they handled and what message is being sent?
   3. Does my subject connect with other genres, like literature or visual art or music?
   4. Have I witnessed or experienced something or someone that helps illustrate my point?
   5. Can I construct a scenario that helps illustrate my point?
3. Counterarguments & Concessions: Because you are making an argument, it’s a good idea to find positions with which you can counter-argue and points with which you can make a concession.
   1. When you counter-argue, you bring up a point that people who are inclined to disagree with your evaluation might make. Then you refute that point, arguing against it.
   2. When you make a concession, you bring up a strong or valid argument made by people who disagree with your overall assessment of your subject. The point is to show that you are reasonable and have considered other points of view besides your own.

Tips:

• Don’t forget that movie titles and the titles of TV shows are italicized.
• You will need to create Works Cited entries for the movies or TV shows you discuss.
• Don’t devote the majority of your essay to plot summary. Give your reader enough information to allow them to follow your ideas, but you are not responsible for summing up the entire plot of the film or TV episodes that you are evaluating.
• Plagiarism Alert: If you do ANY research (if you look at online reviews of the movie/TV show, read blogs, go to official websites) and you use that research in any way to inform yourself and to develop your evaluation you MUST cite your sources.  When in doubt, cite the source.

Multimodality:

You have several options here.

• You can create a PowerPoint or Prezi to accompany your essay. Think of it as a way to add visual interest and expand on a point or two in your paper. You do NOT have to turn your entire paper into a presentation.
• You could create a video to accompany your paper. Interview people who are fans of the genre under which your subject falls. Ask them if they are familiar with your subject and if so what their thoughts on it are. Then you could edit those clips together and use their responses to show how your evaluation has merit. Or you could point out why some people you interview are wrong about your subject and then tell us, in very specific terms, why that is.
• You can include images in your text. These images should directly relate to your subject.
  • If you write about a live event (concert, play) you could take some pictures and include them.
  • For Apps, include screenshots.
  • If you write about a product consider going to the manufacturer’s website and finding some images there that help you illustrate your points. Or look at some ads for your product and include them.
  • Images from the movie, game or TV show you are writing about can be included (movie poster, cast photos, stills from the film, game, or show)
  • If you write about a song, images of the songwriter, an image from the video (and even a direct link to it), and album art can be included.

Evaluating Your Projects

• Students who meet expectations for this assignment will present a final product in which they present a clear, assertive, evaluative thesis. This thesis should make a clear claim about the success or lack thereof in regard to the subject. This claim should be backed up with clear criteria, and specific discussion of elements of the subject as they relate to the criteria. They will also include a multimodal component
• Students who exceed expectations will do the above while demonstrating sharp critical thinking and analysis in their evaluation. Their text should display mastery of word choice and clear organization. Their multimodal component should serve to add visual interest and expand on points and ideas they bring up in their text.