Improve your evaluative essay skills

n your responses to the evaluative questions it is important to remain focused on the big picture; the effectiveness of the presentation of an aspect of SITE in the text as a whole. When evaluating the non-fiction text in response to question 6 on paper 2 this means commenting on and providing textual evidence of the Subject, Ideas, Themes and Events within the text. Look at this extract from Chinese Cinderella, an autobiography by the Chinese-American writer Adeline Yen Mah and choose the correct aspect of SITE from each drop-down menu on the text.

When providing evaluative responses you do not need to quote directly from the text you are writing about.

When constructing PEED paragraphs you have three different options in terms of how you provide supporting textual evidence. These are: 1.Direct quotations 2 Paraphrasing 3. Reference. Look at the textual evidence and match it to the correct form

Look at the extract in the image opposite. It is from a newspaper article entitle Explorers or boys messing about? Now look at this opinion which forms the point at the start of an evaluative PEED paragraph on this article 'The writer if this article engages the reader by presenting the two men as untrustworthy and irresponsible.' Please choose 1 direct quotation taken from the extract which could be used as evidence to support this point.

Look at this marked example of a PEED paragraph from a response evaluating how successfully the writer of Touching the Void engaged the reader through the description of his accident. This is a good attempt at an evaluative PEED paragraph but could have been better. Please choose the ways in which this response could have been improved.

Having offered an opinion and provided some textual evidence in the form of either a direct quotation, paraphrase or a reference what should you then focus your explanation on?

Having offered an opinion about an aspect of the text and provided some supporting evidence in the form of either a short, direct quotation, paraphrase or reference it s important that you go on to explain the effect your evidence has in relation to the successful presentation of the aspect of SITE specified in the question. Look at these examples of evaluative explanations about how the writer of The Explorer's Daughter engaged the reader through the presentation of life in the High Arctic. Please match each explanation to a marker's comment.

When the examiners mark your responses to the evaluative questions on both papers they will be on the lookout for the use of evaluative rather than analytical language. Here are two paragraphs from a response evaluating how successfully Emma Levine engaged her readers through the description of the annual donkey race in Karachi.Please complete the paragraphs by choosing evaluative terms from the drop-down menus. Emma Levine [blank_start]successfully[blank_end] engages the reader in her text through her vivid descriptions of the annual donkey race in Karachi. She [blank_start]convincingly[blank_end] recreates the experience for her readers, bringing it to life by vividly describing the frantic car journey through the bustling, noisy city which she describes as being' Formula One without rules', a cultural reference which allows her Western readers to understand how fast and dangerous it was. The use of relevant Western cultural references is something she does [blank_start]throughout[blank_end] the text which maintains the engagement of the reader, establishing a bond between them and the writer and allowing them to share her sense of excitement and anxiety at being in a strange country and witnessing an unusual event.