School Essay

While many elements make up a school essay, and many different requirements are made of you—depending upon the mode, goal, and tasks at hand, one type of school essay will be useful for interpretation and evaluation assignments.

So today, let’s consider writing an interpretation/evaluation of song. Doing so will help you write school essays on poetry, especially, but might even help guide you in writing a review, a report, or other types of essays wherein you study and assess a subject.
You might already know what creative details, rhythm, speaker, tone, and metaphor do for a song or piece of poetry. For this task, then, which will take about an hour to note, outline, and draft, consider a song that appeals you in some way (that is funny, dramatic, that makes you think, that makes you angry, etc.). For this experiment we will use Aerosmith’s song, “Amazing,”* from their album, Big Ones.

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Amazing

I kept the right ones out
And let the wrong ones in
Had an angel of mercy to see me through all my sins
There were times in my life
When I was goin' insane
Tryin' to walk through
The pain
When I lost my grip
And I hit the floor
Yeah, I thought I could leave but couldn't get out the door
I was so sick and tired
Of livin' a lie
I was wishin' that I
Would die

[Chorus:]
It's Amazing
With the blink of an eye you finally see the light
It's Amazing
When the moment arrives that you know you'll be alright
It's Amazing
And I'm sayin' a prayer for the desperate hearts tonight

That one last shot's a Permanent Vacation
And how high can you fly with broken wings?
Life's a journey not a destination
And I just can't tell just what tomorrow brings

You have to learn to crawl
Before you learn to walk
But I just couldn't listen to all that righteous talk, oh yeah
I was out on the street,
Just tryin' to survive
Scratchin' to stay
Alive
[Chorus]

Desperate hearts, desperate hearts
© Aerosmith, Nov. 1, 1994

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First, name the song/poem title in quotes and take a guess at what the title suggests:

EXAMPLE: "Amazing" (something spiritual or emotional)

Next, write down who you think the speaker is and what his/her tone is:

EXAMPLE: In Aerosmith's "Amazing", the speaker is an angry, sad, depressed man who contemplates a third world kind of suffering (as one of my students, Christian, described it).

Next, write down what words/phrases tell you this:

EXAMPLE: "I let the right ones out/let the wrong ones in"

Next, write down any elements you find striking or significant, and note what you associate with each:

EXAMPLE: “light”--redemption/ knowledge /death and rebirth:
EXAMPLE: “hit the floor”—passed out; hit bottom; was lost, defeated
EXAMPLE: “lost my grip”--screwed up/wasted
EXAMPLE: “couldn't get out the door-- incompetent

Next, reconsider the title, noting any associations you have with it:

EXAMPLE: "Amazing"---reminds me of "Amazing Grace"

Then, add up all of the notes, drafting one overall opinion in a complete statement (which will be your thesis statement):

EXAMPLE: Aerosmith's "Amazing" is a song of death and redemption, its theme made clear in the symbolism and imagery the writers use.

If you do all of this, you will have all the ingredients for a complete piece of writing--in note form--and will only need to make each set complete sentences and paragraphs. In other words, you will have the THEME, which will be your thesis; you can put that theme right inside your THESIS.

You can then write a school essay that goes like this: introduce with a grabber/opener; add your statement; then break down your findings, using one example in each SUPPORTING paragraph that follows.

Closing can be the most challenging part, so in this kind of essay, you could add your personal opinion of the song (or poem, if that is what you are working with). This will be the evaluative part, wherein you can say yeah or nay, can recommend readers listen to or buy the album/CD, or can discourage people from wasting their hard-earned cash. But NOT, of course, with Aerosmith! They rock!

And may you rock your school essay, on whatever topic you are assigned.