Effective Phrases for Performance Appraisals: A Guide to Successful Evaluations

I get the impression that this thoughtful and well laid out guide was originally for use in the military and other government agencies. It is a very useful tool for allowing your own creative juices to work for you when writing up an appraisal.

The best method that I've found for this little guide is start in with an employee appraisal, then scan through the relevant pages when you feel you are at a sticking point and need some time in order to place the correct phrase that just doesn't seem to come to mind at the moment.

Rest assured that taking a break, scanning through this guide for a while, and then putting your work aside for a few hours will result in some very constructive ideas for you..

s/ Patricia Gibbons


Useful Reference for Frequent Reviewers   July 7, 2006
Mike Blaszczak (Mercer Island, WA, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

My boss bought this for me as a gag gift when I was dragging behind in submitting my own performance review. While an amuisng gift for that situation, I think the book is a great reference for anyone who has to write reviews frequently. It's not easy to find the right words, and natural to feel "in a rut" about the words we do use so often.

The book is grouped into sections about different performance aspects: quality, resourcefulness, stress, tact, vision, potential, planning, and so on. There's about sixty groups in total, each with two or three pages of suggested phrases. They're sensibly worded, and diverse enough to get the juices flowing again when facing yet another employee performance review when you know what you want to say, but aren't sure about how to get it onto paper.

It's curious to fault the title for not providing unsatisfactory recommendations. I would've thought it obvious to place "does not" or "does not consistently" before any of the supplied phrases to indicate a shortcoming in an employee's performance.

In its tenth priting since 1978, the book is a well-established reference.


Effective Phrases for Performance Reviews   February 5, 2000
Cherie (Simi Valley, California)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is a 'job aid' that we provide to our managers every year. Whether they are novice or expert at writing reviews, they use this reference guide!