An evaluation is your thoughtful judgment about something based on what you have discovered through your summary, analysis, and synthesis. To evaluate something effectively, apply the questions from the Writing Critically box (see “Writing Critically About Readings”).

Here is an evaluation of “Daily Hassles.”

Hockenbury and Hockenbury present important information and raise some interesting questions about how daily hassles affect our lives. In a few paragraphs, they present a great deal of information on the subject of daily hassles — what they are, who developed the scale of daily hassles, how men and women differ in their reactions to daily hassles, and how the stress of daily hassles negatively affects people. They provide numerous credible references to support their points. Other sources — such as the Mayo Clinic’s Web site, the Web site Diabetes at Work, and a gender-based poll I conducted — provide more details about some aspects of daily hassles and raise questions about the extent to which women and men are differently affected by them. However, the Hockenburys present a good overview of the subject in a short piece of writing. I think the authors do a great job of pulling together good information for students.

When you do college-level work, you must be able to evaluate the readings and other sources you encounter. Instructors may ask you to write evaluations in order to demonstrate your ability to question and judge sources.