Evaluative Essay on “Accidental Killers” by Allice Gregory
I. Introductory paragraph:
State the title of the article you are going to evaluate and the author’s complete name. Alice Gregory is a journalist exploring the question of how a person lives after unintentionally causing a death while driving.
In the Introduction, you need to outline the overall structure of your paper.
How do they live with feelings of sadness, shame, guilt, and responsibility? She found that little help is available for such people. What did she find out in her research and what suggestions does she make?
II. Summary of the essay:
Summarize the main ideas of the article. The summary DOES NOT include your opinion—that comes in the next section (Critical Evaluation). The summary will be several paragraphs . It is important to get an accurate summary so that you can adequately respond to it.
The article is eight pages long. Several stories of individuals are included. it is two pages long—you need to summarize this in just two or three sentences.
III. Critical evaluation of the position adopted in the essay:
Clearly indicate where you end your Summary and where you start your Evaluation.
This is where you give your opinion of Gregory’s article, and support it up with evidence from your personal experience or thoughts that the article has raised for you. This essay focuses on your meta-cognition or critical thinking about your own brain’s/mind’s functioning and how you relate to the article.
There are many different aspects of this article that you may want to focus on. Some questions raised by the article are the following:
Are there databases that track people who have accidentally killed others while driving?
If not, should there be such databases?
Why do mental-health workers who treat veterans have the most relevant professional expertise? What does “moral injury” refer to?
What is the significance of the event in 2003 when George Weller plowed into Santa Monica Farmers Market?
What is the purpose of the website “Accidental Impacts?” Why did Gregory include how this issue has been treated by fiction writers and filmmakers?
