Drake English 313 

Evaluations And Basic Business Writing Skills

Evaluations should employ all of the theories covered in this class.  Evaluations:

1) Have a clear purpose and are adapted to the specific audiences.

2) Clearly define the policy or expectations and implicitly encourage compliance (that's the purpose: to get people to change their behavior and become more cooperative, productive etc.).

3) Are inherently "persuasive" documents; in order to succeed, they must employ the basic elements of persuasion: the reader has to want to improve (pathos), must believe that improvement is necessary and/or beneficial (logos), must trust that your evaluation is fair and true (ethos).

4) Use You Attitude and Positive Emphasis; you must criticize and point out weaknesses, show areas of necessary improvement etc., but in order to fulfill the persuasive purpose, you do not want those you criticize simply rebelling or being too pissed off to change.

5) Serve the needs, desires, expectations etc. of multiple audiences with often competing agendas.