Write about your first experience with your subject. This might be, for example, the first time you remember visiting the restaurant, or hearing the performer or seeing the photographs. Focus on scenes, moments, situations and people.

Write about what you think might be important qualities of your subject. Ideally, this would be what the thing should be able to do well or what effects it should have on people who use it or see it. Say you're evaluating laptop computers for college students--under which conditions would a laptop be most useful? What have you noticed about the way you use one? In which common situations do student laptops prove vulnerable to damage? What have you hear other people say they like or dislike about their machines?

Write about how the thing makes you feel. So much of our evaluation of a thing begins with our emotional response to it. You love the photography of Edward Weston, or the music of Ani DiFranco, or you really dislike Hitchcock movies. Explore not just your initial good, bad or mixed feelings about your subject but from where those feelings arise. For instance, when you listen to DiFranco's lyrics, do they move you in some way, are they emotionally suggestive, do they trigger certain feelings and memories and associations?

Compare the thing you're evaluating with something else that's similar. I appreciate Carpe Diem largely because it's so different from Starbucks. Focus on relevant comparisons, teasing out the differences and similarities and thinking about how you feel about them.

Research

Search for information on product Web sites or Web pages devoted specifically to your subject. If your review is on a hybrid car like the Prius visit the company's Web site to find out what you can about the vehicle. Find the Shins' home page or fan site for your review of the band's new CD.

Search for existing reviews or other evaluations on your subject. One way to do this is to use a search engine such as Google, using the keyword "review or reviews" (or "how to evaluate") along with your subject. For example "laptop reviews" will produce dozens of sites that rank and evaluate the machines. Similarly, there are countless reviews on the Web of specific performers, CDs, consumer products and so on.

If possible, interview people about what they think. You can do this formally by developing a survey, or informally by simply asking people what they like or dislike about the thing you're evaluating. Also consider whether you might interview someone who's an expert on your subject. For example, if you're evaluating a Web site, ask people in the technical communications program what they think about it, or what criteria they might use if they were reviewing something similar.

Finally, experience your subject. Visit the coffee houses, examine the Web site, listen to the music, attend the performance, read the book, view the painting, visit the building, look at the architecture, watch the movie. As you do this, gather your impressions and collect information. The best way to do this methodically is to collect notes.

Remember in the process of evaluation you should consider the basis on which you make your judgment. In other words, what criteria are you using?