Revising for evaluations

Remember that revision is not just changing a word here or there or correcting occasional spelling errors. Make your evaluation more effective for your reader by including more specific evidence, chang¬ing the order of your paragraphs to make them clearer, cutting out an unimportant point, or adding a point that one of your readers suggests.

Guidelines for revision 

During your revision, keep the following tips in mind:

• Criteria are standards of value. They contain a category and a judgment, as in "good fuel economy," "reliability," or "powerful use of light and shade in a painting." Some categories, such as "price," have clearly implied judgment ("low price"), but make sure that your criteria refer implicitly or explicitly to a standard of value.
• Examine your criteria from your audience's point of view.
• Which criteria are most important in evaluating your subject? Will your readers agree that the criteria you select are indeed the most important ones? Will changing the order in which you pre¬sent your criteria make your evaluation more convincing?
• Be sure to include supporting evidence for each criterion.
• Without any data or support, your evaluation will be just an opinion that will not persuade your reader.
• Avoid overgeneralizing in your claims. If you are evaluating only three software programs, you cannot say that Lotus 1-2-3 is the best business program around. You can say only that it is the best among the group or the best in the particular class you measured.
• Unless your point is humor or irony, compare subjects that belong in the same class. Comparing a Yugo to a BMW is absurd because they are not similar cars in terms of cost, design, or purpose.
• If you need additional evidence to persuade your readers, review the questions at the beginning of the "Collecting" section of this chapter. Have you addressed all the key questions listed there?
• If you are citing other people's data or quoting sources, check to make sure your summaries and data are accurate.
• Signal the major divisions in your evaluation to your reader using clear transitions, key words, and paragraph hooks. At the beginning of new paragraphs or sections in your essay, let your reader know where you are going.
• Revise sentences for directness and clarity.
• Edit your evaluation for correct spelling, appropriate word choice, punctuation, usage, and grammar.