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Chapter 16 introduces you to writing evaluation arguments. Because of their power to help individuals and communities make choices about actions, beliefs, and values, making these arguments may eventually be among the most important writing you ever do. You can write evaluation arguments for various rhetorical purposes, including to inform, to analyze, or to persuade. By the end of the chapter, you should understand the following: 1. Evaluation arguments proceed by a process called criteria-match. 2. Ordinarily, criteria are based upon the purpose of the class to which the thing being evaluated belongs; however, decisions about purpose are always affected by context. 3. The task of establishing criteria is often plagued by several common problems, including apples and oranges; the problem of standards; necessary, sufficient, and accidental criteria; the problem of seductive empirical measures; the problem of cost. 4. Stephen Toulmin's system is very useful for constructing effective evaluation arguments. 5. The process for making an effective evaluation argument can be broken down into four basic steps that will establish class, criteria, degree of match, and response to opposing views.
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