Sample Master's Project Evaluation 2

Final Evaluation
Student: Ahmed XXX
Class: Master’s Project
Adviser: xxx
Date: xxx

For his master’s project, Ahmed focused on Arab-American comics who are using standup to try and
forge cross-cultural understanding in the wake of 9/11. It was a strong, original idea that he originally
proposed as a digital project, but it didn’t make the cut during the pitch process. We suspect that’s
because he didn’t articulate his idea quite as clearly and powerfully in his pitch as he did in his first
meeting with us.

In that conversation, it became clear that Ahmed really knew his subject, and also that he also had a
strong character through which to tell it, we made an executive decision to allow Ahmed to do his
project as a hybrid – i.e., 2,500 words of print plus a video of about six minutes.

And it definitely was the right decision. Standup comedy is meant to be heard, not read, and something
would have been lost in translation if this were purely a print project. Although there were stumbling
blocks along the way – most notably when the main character backed out because he (the character,
not Ahmed) had become depressed and quit performing -- Ahmed persevered. Coming into the home
stretch he was still struggling to find a substitute character, but in the end he pulled it out and put
together a video that nicely complimented an extremely strong print piece.

In terms of specifics:

The first draft of Ahmed’s print piece was very solid. It was clear, generally well-reported and nicely
written although we did suggest some tweaks to the lead and the structure. There were a couple of
things missing, however: It didn’t have was the “expert” voices from outside the comedy world who
could have put the movement in perspective, and it didn’t have color. Even if the video itself was going
to take us inside the comedy clubs, the print piece needed some lighter touches. We suggested he
weave some jokes into the scenes, to make it more fun to read and to show (as opposed to telling)
readers who turn to the print piece before the video what that form of comedy was all about.

He was still doing a bit too much telling and not enough showing in the second draft of his print piece;
although the video would allow the comics to speak for themselves, the print piece still felt too heavy.
There’s a difference between seriousness of content and seriousness of tone; just because the subject
was serious didn’t mean the tone had to be.

By the third draft, however, Ahmed had successfully integrated these changes into his print piece, which
read beautifully; in fact, other faculty who’d seen it on his web site commented on how strong they
thought it was.

In short, it was a real pleasure working with him this year, and we look forward to seeing him continue
to grow and progress as a journalist. We wish him well as he moves into the workplace and hope he’ll
keep in touch.