Introducing evaluation in an essay is an easy task to follow since the student can acquire a personal attitude to any subject after reading the relevant literature and analyzing argumentation for and against it. However, writing an evaluation essay is entirely different from merely evaluating a topic in the framework of another type of work. The majority of evaluation essays fail because of an inadequate understanding of the reasoning behind the very notion of such an essay. Hence, a proper understanding of the purpose and function of evaluation essays and their key features and steps in writing may help any student achieve proficiency and get high grades for evaluation essays.
The purpose and key features of evaluation essays
Any evaluation essay should construct an evaluation of some subject according to a certain scheme chosen by the author of the essay. For example, one may choose to refer to literary sources at first, to balance arguments for and against the issue, and then produce a personal evaluation in the final paragraph of the essay. Some other students choose to present their personal opinions for or against the issue from the beginning of the essay and substantiate it with the literature supporting their opinion only.
Some other variants of writing evaluation essays include the generation of metrics according to which a subject can be evaluated (with further comparison and contrast with the models for evaluation of other objects of a similar kind) or explaining the rationale for the need for that evaluation (for example, in case a new healthcare reform is evaluated, the writer should delineate the consequences of both adopting the reform and refusing from it, which affects the evaluation).
The steps in writing of evaluation essays
The process of writing an evaluation essay is also significant for the writing outcomes. Thus, first, the author has to identify the subject for evaluation, identify its type, and its key characteristics for the reader to understand the essence of the essay from the very start. Then, the main body of the evaluation essays pertains to the evaluation itself; here, the writer should include the argumentation for or against the subject, indicate the source of arguments to make the essay more valid, and produce a final evaluative summary thereof. The conclusion of an essay may contain information about the value of evaluation and its purpose and a concise summary of the evaluative characteristics.