Evaluative Statements in Reading and Writing

Study Notes

A way to present a final judgement on an idea or issue, can be positive, negative, right or wrong, moral or immoral, supported by research or valid reasons.
Used to show opinions, judgements, and points of view in a clear and concise manner.
Presents a value judgement based on a set of criteria.
Accord. to Hernandez et al. (2017), it is an objective and tactful way of reacting to a text.

Begin with positives and keep feedback concise.
When pointing out negatives, focus on the situation, not the person, and provide a solution or suggested improvement.
Formulate assertions about the content and properties of a text, examining which ideas are facts or opinions, making inferences or conclusions, and assessing the overall quality of the text.

Accord. to Merriam-Webster, assertions are an act of asserting or something that is asserted, such as insistent and positive affirming, maintaining or defending, and a declaration that something is the case.
A sentence that is either true or false.
A stylistic approach or technique involving a strong declaration, a forceful or confident and positive statement regarding a belief or a fact.

Fact: a statement that can be proven objectively by direct experience, testimonies of witnesses, verified observations, or results of research.
Convention: a way in which something is done, similar to traditions and norms.
Opinion: based on facts but are difficult to objectively verify because of the uncertainty of producing satisfactory proofs of soundness.
Preference: based on personal choice, thus they are subjective and cannot be objectively proven or logically attacked.

Basic assertion: a simple and straightforward statement for expressing feelings, opinions, and beliefs.
Emphatic assertion: conveys sympathy to someone, and usually has two parts: the first encompasses the recognition of the feelings or situations of the other person whilst the second is a statement that shows support for the other person’s viewpoint, feelings, or rights.
Escalating assertion: occurs when someone is not able to give a response to a person's basic assertions, and therefore that person becomes firm about him or her.
Language assertion: involves the first person pronoun “I” and is useful for expressing negative feelings, constructively laying emphasis on a person’s feelings of anger.

Accord. to Merriam-Webster, counterclaims are an opposing claim.
Defined by Tiongson (2016) as made to rebut a previous claim providing a contrasting perspective to the main argument.