Review Your Criteria

Once you’ve written a first draft, read it carefully. Then step back and ask questions about your criteria. Ask whether you’ve used enough — or too many — criteria (generally, evaluative essays include between two and five). Most important, ask whether you’ve considered the most significant criteria. For example, an evaluation of competing approaches to funding intercollegiate athletic programs that doesn’t consider the impact of those approaches on tuition and fees is missing an important criterion.