ABSTRACT
The challenge in creating a good evaluation is to come up with an appropriate set of standards and to justify them adequately. This chapter focuses on three common kinds of standards needed for different kinds of evaluation and the process of justifying them. The first is to evaluate an object as an instrument or item that serves a particular purpose. A second sort of evaluation evaluates activities. Activities are frequently evaluated in terms of whether they are projected to have good or bad consequences. A third form of evaluative claim evaluates the ability of people at performing a given activity. One approach, known as utilitarianism, is similar to consequence evaluation because it too focuses on the consequences of an action. Special attention will have to be paid to situations in which there are some consequences that point in the opposite direction and are being acknowledged.
