Evaluation of Novel

EVALUATiON OF NOVEL:
There are six traits +1 of writing that is used to evaluate writing. The first trait is ideas and content. Then comes the organization trait and the individual voice trait. Then the word choice, sentence fluency and conventions trait. The +1 trait is the presentation.

In the book that I read, the ideas and content trait was used. I thought that it wasn’t used all that well. He had many ideas and he talked about them in different spots of the book. It was not always clear and complete because he would trail off into a different subject. Also, it wasn’t all that focused. But the details that he had were pretty interesting. They were also very insightful and original.

The second trait is organization. I thought that Chris Crutcher did a pretty bad job on this trait. His book was not organized at all. He just went from story to story in no particular order. Although his stories did tie in to each other someway or another, he still had no organization. Sometimes it was hard to follow because one moment, he would be writing about going camping as a little boy, and the next, he would be talking about something that happened in his therapist career. On this trait, Crutcher did not do a very good job.

Individual voice was probably the best trait that he had in his novel. I could tell his voice and that it was him, because through the whole novel he was talking about himself. He had pretty strong ideas about different things. He was very committed to and involved with his topic, because his topic was him. And Chris Crutcher likes to talk about himself, as you would find out if you read any of his other books. He also contained a definite point of view, which was his point of view on his life.

There were many active, energetic verbs in his novel. He painted pictures with his words, so that I could visualize what he was talking about. Every new sentence contained something new and exciting. Crutcher used this trait pretty well too. He did not slack off on using active verbs. The sentences were vivid and you would not get bored of them.

That brings us into the fifth trait, the sentence fluency trait. The sentences were easy to read, although they had a few words that were hard to understand. The rhythm just kept going on and on and on. They varied in length and either would be long and elaborate, or short. Chris had an effective use of conjunctions and transitions

Well, the conventions were of course correct. It is, after all, a published book. The spelling was all correct and the punctuation was correct and effective. The grammar was used not always in the appropriate way, but mostly it was used correctly. The capitalization was all the way that the author wanted it, and he wanted it to be correct, so the capitalization was correct. This book was designed to make reading easy, and it was.

The last trait, referred to as the +1 trait, is presentation. On the cover of the book, is the lower half of a boy’s face, which has a wide grin on it, and the upper part of his body. The boy is wearing a red turtleneck. It is not the most appealing cover, but it catches your eye. The back gives a brief summary of the story. But if you were reading it over, it probably would not catch your attention as much as some action story would.