Furthermore, while we learned these concepts and skills, it was suggested that learning how to identify and analyze an argument before evaluating the argument improves one's ability to evaluate the argument. We are now ready to begin to see how this is so. We are now ready to focus on the task of evaluating arguments. When we evaluate an argument we are criticizing it. We are assessing it.
Criticism can be positive or negative.
For example, praise is criticism. When a teacher praises a student for doing well on a test the teacher is making an evaluative comment about the student's performance on the test. To use another example, if you praise a person for risking her life in order to save a drowning child, then you are making an evaluative comment about the person's ethical conduct. To evaluate an argument is to criticize or assess an argument. To evaluate an argument is to assess its persuasiveness.