How to Write an Evaluation Essay in Public Administration

If you have read the book that you really liked, had a very delicious dessert in a cafe or seen a great film, you are more than ready to work on an evaluation essay. When you’re assigned an evaluation essay in public administration, you will have to work in a field that deals with human resource management, data analysis, communication skills, finances and business management – anything that is related to the public sector. Your task will be to create a serious, logically structured, sometimes sarcastic and humorous paper that will summarize information and include your point of view on the chosen or assigned topic.

Writing an evaluation essay in public administration requires you to have critical thinking skills. In order to write a good one, the author has to be able to forget about one’s emotions and provide a highly objective point of view about the topic. This way, you will be able to get to the core of the subject.

8 Steps to Write an Evaluation Essay in Public Administration

If you want your evaluation essay to bring you high grades, you will have to create a strong plan, first of all. And we’re not talking about planning of your text. You have to plan your time as well in order to make sure you will have enough time and will be able to work during the most productive hours.

Before You Begin to Write

1. You have to read the task attentively

The very moment that your college professor gives you the task in public administration, you have to examine the instructions properly. Take a look at the task in order to make sure you won’t miss an important aspect and your evaluation essay will have the highest grades.

2. Choose the topic for an evaluation essay

If your professor didn’t provide you with any topic in public administration, you will have to select one by yourself. How to pick a perfect topic for an evaluation essay in public administration? There are many different subjects in this field that you can use as a foundation for your paper. The point is that you can evaluate anything: public policies, governments, human resources, laws, political and social systems, and so on.

Here’s what you have to take into consideration: even if it is the public administration, you still have to choose the topic that is interesting for your audience. If possible, make sure to choose something that you’re familiar with. Thus, you will be able to work faster, evaluate the chosen criteria better than in case with an unknown topic, as well as make your paper of the best quality.
Here are some of the topics that you may like to use it for your evaluation essay:

Evaluate the performance of female entrepreneurs in technological and non-technological development;
Evaluate the disaster recovery and response policies;
Evaluate incentive schemes and workers performance in the United States;
Evaluate organizational activities of the civil service;
Evaluate the principals’ administrative effectiveness in US schools;
Evaluate the demographic factors that influence teachers recruitment and retaining.

Some students believe that if they take the topic that is difficult and contains complex terms, their paper will get better grades. However, that is not true. If anything, it’s the opposite. If your knowledge in a particular sub-field is poor, neither complex terms nor anything else will save your grade. Besides, the author of the evaluation essay must have strong background knowledge if required.

3. Develop Your Thesis Statement

Once you have your evaluation topic chosen, you have to create a strong thesis statement. We strongly recommend college authors not to decide on the thesis statement after they have begun to write. Coming down to your thesis statement in an evaluation essay in any subject is something that should be done first. Then, when you write your paper, you will have to make certain that it is related to your thesis statement and doesn’t contradict it. Your thesis can include the evaluation and a few explanations of exactly this type of evaluation matters in the chosen topic. For instance, if you decide to evaluate municipal government operations, your thesis statement might be about a nice attempt of many cities to appoint a qualified manager who has to maintain limited administrative authority.

4. Choose Your Evaluation Criteria

Again, never begin to write your evaluation essay in public administration unless the evaluation criteria aren’t properly considered. When you’re done with your thesis statement formulation, be wise to choose the correct criteria because they will be your number one tool to create a strong paper. In case with the municipal government operations that we have just mentioned above, the author could pick the following criteria:

How effective are the municipal government operations?
Is it reasonable to perform them?
Do the municipal government operations represent the “ethic” side of administration?
Are the municipal government operations appropriately implemented?

Without a doubt, there is a chance that you may feel lost in the middle of all the criteria available on your topic. The thing is that the more complex your topic is, the more criteria are included. If you find yourself needing to limit the number of criteria, feel free to inform your readers about that somewhere in your introduction paragraph.

5. Collect Your Evidence

This is the last step that the author has to take before he or she begins to write an evaluation essay. Keep in mind that strong evidence is important because it helps to support your arguments and judgements to make sure your audience trust you. Imagine that you’re asked to evaluate public administration issues just to consult your audience, providing them with an opportunity to come up with their own judgement on your evaluation, considering your point of view and the materials you found in during the research phase.

At some point, you may find that some parts of your evidence happen to contradict each other. Don’t be discouraged by it since you’re dealing with writing on a real-life topic, which means you will have to get back to your thesis statement again in order to modify it in accordance with the evidence that you have collected. If that ever happens in the process of writing, chances are the process of writing an evaluation essay will become even more interesting and, as a result, your professor will be even more impressed by the paper you submit.

6. Write the Introduction

The process of creating an introduction for an evaluation essay in public administration includes presenting the object of evaluation and all the elements to reason the selection of a particular topic. The author can mention the important of the subject in a particular society or for the whole world. At the same time, you can also state how this very topic in public administration influences or influenced you personally. Basically, the opening paragraph of an evaluation essay is an attention-grabber and a defining moment of the whole project. In case your fail to catch the attention of your potential audience with the introduction, there are chances that your readers will end up reading it at the very beginning.

Do not forget to provide the list of criteria for evaluation and tell your readers why exactly you chose to describe exactly this segment of public administration area instead of picking any other parameters.

7. Write the Body of the Evaluation Essay

The structure of the evaluation essay is what matters a lot. You can include the most unbelievable facts and details, but if you organize them all chaotically, without a reason-based and proper structure, your readers may lose interest in it. In other words, the author has to choose the key points of evaluation and list them in accordance to this scheme:

Provide a short presentation of the chosen parameter.
In terms of the chosen parameter, make sure to assess the positive aspects of the evaluated subject.
Do the comparison of it with the other representatives of the same group in order to prove your point of view is correct.
Provide the final judgement on this parameter.

In case with the evaluation essay in public administration, we strongly recommend college writers to take into consideration all the counterarguments as well. You have to do it in order to refute each. Keep in mind the simplest fact – every argument that you make becomes more valid when you can arrange all counterarguments and provide all the reasons that refute them.

8. The Conclusion of the Essay

The last step that you have to take to accomplish your evaluation on public administration topic is the conclusion. At this moment, you will have your text written, which means you have to summarize what you said in the body of the essay. Thus, you will build a strong bond between the argument or arguments that you discussed and the goals that you stated in the introduction paragraph. You have to be clear when stating your position, as well as exert every effort in order to impress your audience with your evaluation and the quality of text. The final paragraph is the part of the evaluation project where the author provides the last overall evaluation of the topic.

Finally, do not forget to proofread and edit your essay. In the process of it, you will remove all punctuation, grammar, style or any other mistakes.

Common Mistakes in an Evaluation Essay in Public Administration

Many students mistake an evaluation essay in public administration with a review. The latter is a summary of a story, event or movie. At the same time, an evaluation essay facilitates the reads with a clear subject or idea.
Some of the author pick a topic that is too broad. A wide topic is a huge mistake because you will have to deal with tons of information to have strong criteria at the end. In other words, you will make the whole process of work more difficult.
Many authors include an insufficient number of criteria. If you fail to write about more than 3 criteria, you’re going to fail to investigate the entirety of the topic.

Final Recommendations

It is highly recommended to include descriptions, quotations, personal experiences, as well as comparisons with the objects that are similar to your evidence.
Your point of view about the chosen topic can be either positive or negative, but don’t just state that in your essay. Instead, you have to provide good reasons to rationalize your opinion.
When you write an evaluation essay in public administration, do not just provide an unbiased opinion – you have already chosen an evaluative and strong thesis statement, so make sure to give trustworthy evidence to defend it.
Keep in mind that the more controversial your topic is, the more supporting evidence you will have to collect for it.
Public administration experts recommend to present some of the weaknesses of your work. Thus, the authors may show that they are aware of all the aspects of the chosen matter, but their point of view is strong enough to withstand any contradictions.

We hope that after reaping this guide written by the experts of evaluation, you now have an idea of what a high quality essay includes. Feel free to use the recommendations and examples given above in order to capture the readers’ attention.