This essay is all about making an evaluation regarding a specific event, movement, or policy. It will require close reading(s) of several of articles, both scholarly and popular. It will also require you to use specific details from your sources to support an evaluation you will develop.
Not only will you need to be well versed in what you are evaluating, you will need to read many of your sources closely, examining all assumptions, assessing its reasons and evidence, and weighing its conclusions. Look at how each author uses the different rhetorical appeals in the advancement of its claim or position. Your assessment should be founded in a careful critical analysis which culminates in a determination as to whether or not you think the authors the of opposing view successfully supports its primary position or claim.
While you are stating your own personal evaluation of a service, product, etc. you need to do so while writing in the third person, not using first person pronouns such as “I,” “me,” or “my,” or second person pronouns such as “you.”
Assignment Objectives:
1. Perform a thorough evaluation of one of the following options:
Politician’s specific stance on a political issue
A local city or state law
A city ordinance
A specific focus of a political or social movement
Paul Ryan’s 2012 Budgetary approach regarding aid and the role of private charity, using the The Overnighters documentary as your specific focus
A policy or regulation regarding your area of major and eventual profession
Present the subject – meaning you know and understand what your judging/evaluating.
Supporting Your Judgment – to do this you must first establish criteria by which you will evaluate your topic/subject. This criteria must be appropriate to your subject and backed by reliable evidence.
Look for patterns of opposing and present them.
Reinforce the main point of your evaluation
REMEMBER: Analyze how the rhetorical appeals are used and if any are used more prominently. Are there any logical fallacies? Where does the author draw his or her credibility? Are they a knowledgeable and trust worthy source? (Ethos) How does the article appeal to the values and beliefs of its audience? (Pathos) How does it use logic, data, and sound reasoning? (Logos) Assess how effectively or ineffectively an article uses each of the appeals. To help with this process find quotations from your article which support your evaluation.
Role of Research
Incorporate at least five sources:
one primary source material regarding your topic/subject
one credible, source for each of your supportive points (this would be at least three total)
one credible, source in support of the opposing argument
These should be a mix of scholarly and popular sources. For every popular source you have, you must one scholarly source that supports it. These sources should represent different understandings of the same topic. While this might seem like an unnecessary step, you have to familiarize yourself with what people are saying about a topic before you begin making a valid evaluation argument. All sources must meet my approval.
Assignment Requirements:
5 page minimum
Meets the basic requirements of the rubric.
