Probably one of the first essays you ever had to write (after you wrote about what you did on your summer vacation) was a book review of some kind. You probably gave a brief run-down of the book's major characters, a summary of the plot (if there was one) or told what the book was about, and then said how wonderful the book was (being careful not to reveal too much about the ending). The evaluative essay remains a valuable tool in your arsenal of composition patterns.
Hopefully, your ability to say what you like about the object at hand — whether it's a book or a painting or a jazz album or a rock concert or a dinner at a fancy restaurant or the design of a new car — has become more subtle and convincing over the years since your first book review. Writing about literature demands special skills, and we recommend an online document called Suggestions about Writing Papers for Introduction to Literature.
In writing about poetry or a short story or play or novel, it is very important to keep in touch with the language of the art, showing your reader over and over again where (exactly) in the poem or story you get your ideas, and to do that you have to use quotations — sometimes a lot of quotations. Pay special attention to the hints in that document about using quotations. One device you might want to use in writing your evaluative essay is the device of comparison and contrast. The art work you are looking at doesn't exist in a vacuum.
You can beef up your essay and add to your readers' understanding at the same time by comparing, for instance, this rock album to an earlier album by the same group, showing how the group has matured (or deteriorated) or by comparing this album to another group's album, which does the same thing, but better. Be fair in your comparisons. Whether you are writing about literature or a rock concert, though, there are several points about the evaluative essay you want to keep in mind.
