Review/Evaluation Essay Guidelines ENGL 1301
• Topic for review/evaluation essay, due in D2L, Sunday, October 5, 2025
Directions:
Students will choose their own review topics and will have these topics approved by the deadline listed below. Whatever you choose – movie, book, game, event, product, etc. – it should be of interest and relevance to your audience. It should also be timely. For example, if you’re reviewing a classic movie rather than a current one, it should be obvious why you are reviewing this movie at this particular point in time (e.g. anniversary of its release, sequel is about to come out, etc.). Also note it’s a good idea for a review to begin from (or at least appear to begin from) a neutral, objective position. It’s probably a bad idea to review your favorite book, a movie you hate, or anything else about which you feel very strongly.
Topics
Books, movies, restaurants, video games, local events, area attractions, and various consumer products can all be the subjects of reviews. Whatever subject you review, you will be judging it – deciding if it is good or bad, worthwhile or not worthwhile.
Make sure to pay close attention to the following components of a review/evaluation essay, on which your paper will be graded:
• Grammar and formatting
– Paper is in MLA format, with a Works Cited page
– Paper has been proofread and contains minimal to no grammatical errors
(including punctuation, subject/verb agreement, sentence fragments, etc.)
• Introduction
– Gives background on the subject of the review
– Gives the criteria (aim for three) on which the subject is being evaluated
• Body
– Each body paragraph should give more details on whether or not the subject meets the criteria discussed in that paragraph
• Conclusion
– A summary of the review/evaluation results