Evaluation:

To judge or determine the worth or quality of.

But here’s the thing: when we evaluate critically, our job is not just to say if we like it or not–we must use logic to determine the worth or quality.  Here are some questions that help to logically evaluate something:

1) Are we clear about what we are evaluating?  Be specific.  Choose a facet.
2) What is the purpose of the evaluation? Is our purpose legitimate?
3) Given our purpose, what are the relevant criteria or standards for evaluation?
4) Do we have enough information about the thing we are evaluating? Is that information relevant to the purpose?
5) Have we applied our criteria accurately and fairly to the facts as we know them? Uncritical thinkers often treat evaluation as mere preference or treat their evaluative judgments as direct observations not admitting of error.

Poem (External Scene)

The field blank in snow. But I mean this page.
Now print mars the surface to make surface
Seen. Sheen only error brings. Perfect rage
So the sun rises. Rage is your slow practice
That makes of every day another day
In whose gathering promise the shy sparrows
Shiver instead of sing. I want to go away.
See these footsteps? These black shapes in the snow?
If there is a word for them, it’s no word
I know. Pursuit?, no. Proof?, no. Don’t call it fear.
Could I cross this white sheet if I were coward,
Edge to edge, margin to margin, never
Referring to anything outside itself?—
Stop that. Stop pointing to the photo on the shelf.

 

~Dan Beachy-Quick