General Guidelines for Evaluating

Argumentative Writing Across the Disciplines including Reviews

1. Does the writer clearly identify an issue?

2. Does the writer describe the issue?

3. Does the writer clearly articulate a stance? (Do they have a clearly identifiable "proposition" or "thesis statement?")

4. How good is the persuasive supporting evidence for the proposition?

5. Have a variety of types of argumentation been incorporated into the writing?

a) An appeal to shared values or beliefs (Who is the assumed audience and what are their values?)

b) An appeal to precedent or history.

c) Argument from examples.

d) Argument from ethics.

e) Argument from data or statistics.

f) Argument from authorities.

g) Argument from logic.

h) Argument from good or bad consequences.

i) Argument from pathos (compassion, sympathy, or experience).

j) Argument from shared ideals or principles.

k) Argument from other emotions, etc.

5. Does the author have fallacies in their argument?

a) Faulty causation (The fact that one event followed another does not necessarily prove cause and effect).

b) False analogy (Two things are really not "alike".)

c) Misleading statistics.

d) Appeals to bias.

e) Attacking the person not their argument (an "ad hominem" argument).

f) Join the bandwagon (e.g. "Can 15 million Nazis really be wrong?")

g) Hasty generalization (presenting assumptions as facts)

h) Circular reasoning (restating the assumption as the conclusion).

i) Oversimplifying a complex issue as "either/or."

6. Does the writer adequately acknowledge, recognize, and explain counter-arguments i.e. opposing points of view?

7. Does the writer identify fallacies in opposing arguments?

8. Does the writer refute (or rebut) the counter-arguments and opposing points of view?

8. Are the writer's assumptions about the audience's beliefs and experiences warranted and reasonable?

9. Are the writer's assumptions about the issues warranted and reasonable?

10. If the writer's intended purpose for writing is to persuade, to what degree have they been successful?

11. Does the writing successfully motivate the reader to do something or change their opinion?

12. Is the writer's emotional tone and style appropriate and effective for the task of persuading the intended audience?

13. Is there a clear conclusion and statement of what the audience should do or think?

14. Does the proposed conclusion or solution logically follow from and fit well with the argumentation?