In the critical evaluation you will critique the essay of a peer student. Your evaluation will include an assessment of the form and the content of the essay. You will assess the essay according to the grading criteria that is applied to all argumentative essays.
See the example critical evaluation on the next page.
Audience
You will write the critical evaluation for the author of the original essay. The evaluation should address the author of the essay in the third person.
Purpose
The objective of this course is not only for you to learn the skills to interpret biblical texts, but also to learn to assess the interpretations of others. You will accomplish the second part of the course objective by writing critical evaluations of the essays of your peers. The skill of critically interpreting the Bible is directly related to the skill of assessing other interpretations.
Procedures
The critical evaluation is the flip side of the argumentative essay, for you will now evaluate the quality of another student's argumentative essay according to the same criteria by which your own essay is assessed.
The evaluation should be in essay form and include both positive and negative comments. The comments should be critical - that is, careful evaluation and judgment - and constructive - it will be used by the author to revise the original essay. The evaluation should address the following questions about the essay:
- Thesis: Is the thesis clear and does it make a claim about the interpretation of the passage?
- Content: Is the content accurate and does it reflect the course material?
- Argument: Does the argument develop the thesis and is it persuasive?
- Style: Is the essay well-written?
The critical evaluation will be assessed according to the clarity of the student's judgments in three areas: Description of the essay, assessment of the essay, and engagement with the essay.
The critical evaluations are limited to 1000 words (roughly three double-spaced pages). You must turn in two copies of the evaluation along with the original essay. One copy of the evaluation should be stapled to the back of the original essay. The other copy must be stapled, and the Primary Traits Analysis Form must be attached to the front of the evaluation.
Standards and Criteria
The basic criteria for grading the evaluation is this: Does the evaluation demonstrate that the student can critically assess the interpretations of others?
The evaluation should be written in a respectful, professional tone.
The evaluation should address the author of the essay in the third person, and be written in a respectful, professional tone (the author of the essay will receive a copy of the evaluation after it is graded).
For further information, see the grading criteria for the evaluations.
