For
essay #4, you will be attending a literary event and writing an evaluative
essay about the experience. Literary events include author readings/book
signings at bookstores or library. FILMS DON'T COUNT. CONCERTS DON'T COUNT.
Below should be sufficient guidelines for you to write your 4-5 page essay. You
are only turning in one draft--the final draft. Be sure to set up a good set of
criteria for your evaluation... Evaluating Things You Encounter in the World We
can offer a lot of opinions about what is “good or bad” or “right or wrong,” but
what makes these things good or bad? If I say President Bush is a “great
president,” what criteria am I using to justify my opinion? Likewise, if I say
he’s a “terrible president,” do I have data and information to back my opinion
up? Terms like "good" or "bad" are in and of themselves
meaningless terms—meaningless, primarily because these terms need to be propped
up by criteria by which things deemed to be "good" or "bad"
are judged. What makes a judgment of "good" or "bad"
worthwhile is whether we state the criteria by which they are arrived at. Too
often these terms are thrown around so easily and with no more support than our
own unquestioned preferences—without specifying them. But even when we say that
this CD is good or that movie is bad, we have criteria, we have reasons for
making the statements. We just don't state them, or we're not aware of the need
to state them. Perhaps we may not even be aware of what they are. The single
most important thing to know about reviewing things, about evaluating them, is
that you must make clear what your criteria are. Criteria are the standards by
which we arrive at our judgments. If you're used to recommending movies or CDs
or cars as good or bad without stating why—you may indeed be in for some
insight into yourself as you search for the reasons behind your
recommendations. Qualification to the above remarks: Whether we realize it or
not, we hang out in "communities," groups brought together over some
unifying interest. We are all members of lots of these groups, some we
intentionally form, but others are conceptual. Often though, we're in groups we
actively participate in. These groups often have shared values, and sometimes
we can predict what people know and like etc. Here, we can sometimes get by
with not stating the criteria for why something is "good" or
"bad," because everyone in the group "sorta knows." The
problem is that we sometimes forget that we're not just communicating with
people who share tastes that are very much like our own. So, I want you to consciously
and with an effort, think about why you believe something (whatever it is
you're evaluating) is "good" or "bad." The "why"
is the criteria or yardstick you use to measure this. This whole activity can
make you aware that you may not be communicating as effectively as you think --
because your assumptions about what other people think about your evaluations
can be wrong. Reviewing: Making the Criteria Clear Whenever you are tempted to
make a judgment about whether something is good or bad, simply ask yourself why
you are saying that. With the answer (as long as it's more than "because I
like it" or "because I don't like it"), you are beginning the
statement of criteria. In fact, in terms of critical thinking, there is nothing
different in making claims about value from making any other kinds of claims:
you should always be able to support you point. Being able to do so is what
makes you judgment, your opinion, worthwhile. While learning to articulate the
reasons behind your judgments is good (because it makes your judgments more
substantial), that alone does not eliminate all the problems, particularly the
disagreements between people on the questions of good or bad. The reason is
that people place different values on different things. For me what makes a
movie or a book good is not just the action, but the ideas and the artistic
qualities books and movies have. This, however, clearly puts me in a different
category from many folks around the country, who routinely shell out big bucks
for movies I can’t stand. You also run into opportunities to evaluate things in
the workplace: employees, your boss, some new equipment. Again the important
thing is to specify the yardstick by which you measure whatever it is you are
measuring. Let me give another example to show how we can mis-communicate by
failing to recognize the assumptions involved in our evaluations. Let's say a
student offers a friend an evaluation of a teacher, telling the friend that the
teacher is "good." The friend later takes a course from the teacher,
only to have a terrible experience. The teacher didn't care about the course,
wasted lots of class time talking and telling jokes, didn't share interesting
or exciting ideas with the class, and generally did a poor job of teaching. The
friend later runs into the student who recommended the instructor and asks
about the recommendation. "I thought you said the instructor was
'good,'" the friend says. The first student responds, "Oh, year, he
was good. The course was easy. We got a B for doing almost nothing." In
this example, a lot of grief could have been avoided if either of the students
had broached the idea of criteria. "What makes him 'good'?" would
have done the trick. The example, of course, could have gone the other way,
too. The friend could have recommended a teacher who was just the opposite of
the one in the example above, only to find out the first student didn't really
want to work and to learn something. After getting into the course, he might
have decided the course was "hard" and the teacher was
"bad" or "lousy" -- simply because the teacher made the
class work for their grades. You can enhance your strengths (and your
reputation) as a reviewer—of whatever it is you are called on to evaluate—if
you take to heart the need to specify why it is you judge things the way you
judge them. You can also learn more about yourself by asking yourself the same
questions when you are tempted to render a judgment. You will certainly learn
more about yourself if you try to pinpoint and articulate why it is you either
like or dislike things you encounter. In fact, if you're not afraid of
self-discovery, take it as a challenge to make a radical evaluation of your own
system of judging things by asking why, over and over, until you get to the
basis of whatever it is you have preferences for. You might be surprised at
what you find. Questions to ask when evaluating a literary performance In order
to write Paper #4, you need to create a set of criteria through which you will
analyze the performance and, ultimately, judge it. Think about what makes a
performance “good” or “bad.” What do YOU think makes a performance good or bad?
How would these things apply to a literary performance? You must create your
own criteria for this paper but you might consider the following questions
before you go and while you’re there to help you figure out what criteria
you’ll use to analyze the literary performance. 1) Was the selection of
literature read or performed engaging? Was it “artistic” (and what does
“artistic” mean)? Was it entertaining? Why or why not? 2) Did the performance
make me think about something in a new way—or did it create an emotional
response? Did it merely confirm things you already believe or did it challenge
your assumptions about the world? 3) Did you find the performance disturbing?
If so, was that a good thing and why? If not, was that a good thing and why? 4)
Did the artist interact with and engage the audience? If so, how? If not, why
not? Was engaging the audience or interacting with it important to the event?
Why or why not? 5) What expectations did you have? Were those expectations
fulfilled? If yes, is that a good thing or a bad thing? If your expectations
were not fulfilled, was THAT a good thing or a bad thing? Why? Checklist for
Essay #4 1) Clear, specific thesis that addresses the essay prompt. Essay #4
should also contain a clear set of criteria that tells your reader how you are
planning to evaluate the literary event. This set of criteria should either be
in the introduction or shortly thereafter. 2) Topic sentences in each paragraph
that support the thesis 3) Analysis of evidence--evidence will be gathered at
the event itself--provided to support topic sentences within each paragraph 4)
Paper is at least 4-6 pages long 5) Paper contains proper MLA style in-text
citation 6) Paper contains an MLA style works cited page
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