Chapter+8

= "Criticism and Evaluation" =

Chapter 8 of //A Short Guide to Writing about Literature// discusses criticism and evaluation. Criticizing or evaluating a text should consist of creating an original interpretation of the text. The book outlines some standards to use when evaluating a piece of work. The text lists a few common standards for evaluating a text: personal taste, truth and realism, moral content and aesthetic qualities. An evaluator should use several, different evaluation methods. The standard that the text goes in depth about is morality and truth: an evaluator’s morals and beliefs should not affect how the evaluator evaluates the text:

Morality plays a large role; some critics can give high value to a literary work only if they share its belief, if they think that the work corresponds to reality. They measure work against their own vision of the truth… Other readers can highly value a work of literature that expresses ideas they do not believe, arguing that literature does not require us to believe its views (Fulkerson pp.103-104).

An evaluator’s morals and beliefs should not affect how the evaluator evaluates the text. When criticizing a text, the evaluator should set aside their own biases and they should interpret the text on all standards not just on morality. In the essay, “Four Philosophies of Composition” writer Richard Fulkerson discusses how many teachers fail when evaluating the writing of their students. Fulkerson wants instructors to have a consistent evaluation theory; if a teacher asks for an opinion, they must accept the opinions their students come up with, even if they are based on ignorance: “to give a bald assignment and then judge it from any of the perspective not implied is to be guilty of value-mode confusion” (Fulkerson p.434). Criticism should be based on various standards not just on one particular aspect, and criticism should be consistent to what the instructor is asking for.

Criticism and evaluation is beneficial to writers especially to young writers or novice writers. //A Short Guide to Writing about Literature// would agree with what the theorist Nancy Sommers discusses criticism and evaluation in her essay titled “Responding to Student Writing”; in her essay she suggest ways a reader or an instructor can respond to writing. Sommers believes “thoughtful comments create the motive for revising” (Sommers p.149).


 * Note:** This wikispace can be used as a guide to decide whether or not the text //A Short Guide to Writing About Literature// will be effective for your classroom probably at the college level. Throughout the review of this book, several composition theorists and their writings are referenced. Familiarity with these articles and theories will be helpful in accessing this guide and deciding whether or not to use this book as a source. For your convenience, on the Annotated Bibliography page of this wiki an annotated bibliography including extensive summaries of each work references can be found.