Criteria of Evaluation

Arguments of evaluation can produce simple rankings and winners or can lead to profound decisions about our lives, but they always involve standards. The particular standards we establish for judging anything — whether an idea, a work of art, a person, or a product — are called criteria of evaluation. Sometimes criteria are self-evident: a car that gets fifteen miles per gallon is a gas hog, and a piece of fish that smells even a little off shouldn’t be eaten. But criteria get complicated when a subject is abstract: What features make a song a classic? What constitutes a fair wage? How do we measure a successful foreign policy or college career? Struggling to identify such difficult criteria of evaluation can lead to important insights into your values, motives, and preferences.

Why make such a big deal about criteria when many acts of evaluation seem effortless? We should be suspicious of our judgments especially when we make them casually. It’s irresponsible simply to think that spontaneous and uninformed quips should carry the same weight as well-informed and well-reasoned opinions. Serious evaluations always require reflection, and when we look deeply into our judgments, we sometimes discover important questions that typically go unasked, many prefaced by why:

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Push an argument of evaluation hard enough and even simple judgments become challenging and intriguing.

In fact, for many writers, grappling with criteria is the toughest step in producing an evaluation. When you offer an opinion about a topic you know reasonably well, you want readers to learn something from your judgment. So you need time to think about and then justify the criteria for your opinion, whatever the subject.

Do you think, for instance, that you could explain what (if anything) makes a veggie burger good? Though many people have eaten veggie burgers, they probably haven’t spent much time thinking about them. But it wouldn’t be enough to claim merely that a proper one should be juicy or tasty — such trite claims are not even interesting. The following criteria offered on the Cook’s Illustrated Web site show what happens when experts give the issue a closer look:

We wanted to create veggie burgers that even meat eaters would love. We didn’t want them to taste like hamburgers, but we did want them to act like hamburgers, having a modicum of chew, a harmonious blend of savory ingredients, and the ability to go from grill to bun without falling apart. [emphasis added]

— Cook’s Illustrated

After a lot of experimenting, Cook’s Illustrated came up with a recipe that met these criteria.

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Criteria of evaluation aren’t static, either. They differ according to time and audience. Much market research, for example, is designed to find out what particular consumers want now and may want in the future — what their criteria are for buying a product. In good times, people may demand homes with soaring entryways, lots of space, and premium appliances. In tougher times, they may care more about efficient use of space, quality insulation, and energy-efficient stoves and dishwashers. Shifts in values, attitudes, and criteria happen all the time.