Reflecting on the Genre

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Good evaluative writing provides readers with reasons and support for the writer’s judgment. However, the writer’s personal experiences, cultural background, and political ideology are also reflected in evaluations. Even the most fair-minded evaluators write from the perspective of their ethnicity, religion, gender, age, social class, sexual orientation, academic discipline, and so on. Writers seldom make their assumptions explicit, however. Consequently, while the reasons presented within an evaluation may make it seem fair and objective, the writer’s judgment may result from hidden assumptions that even the writer has not examined critically.

ANALYZE & WRITE

Write a page or two explaining how the genre disguises the writer’s assumptions. In your discussion, you might do one or more of the following:

  1. Identify one of the hidden assumptions of a writer in this chapter. Think of a personal or cultural factor that may have influenced the writer's judgment of the subject. For example, how do you imagine that Akana’s gender may have influenced his judgment of the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World?
  2. Reflect on your own experience of writing an evaluation essay. How do you think factors such as gender, age, social class, ethnicity, religion, geographical region, or political perspective may have influenced your own evaluation? Recall the subjects that you listed as possibilities for your essay and how you chose one to evaluate. Also recall how you arrived at your overall judgment and how you decided which reasons to use and which not to use in your essay.
  3. Write a page or two explaining your ideas about how hidden assumptions play a role in evaluation essays. Connect your ideas to the readings in this chapter and to your own essay.

    Question