Analysis 3
of “A Rose for Emily”
by William Faulkner
YOUR ASSIGNMENT
IS TO WRITE A 6-7 PAGE ESSAY, plus Works Cited, as a literary analysis of “A Rose for
Emily.” Your essay must have a central idea–your thesis–which you prove with credible
evidence. Underline the thesis, so I can see what you are promising to prove.
PROVE YOUR THESIS by building an argument, logically, out of bits and pieces of
information and expert opinion you’ve found through research. Just stating what one
source after another says about “A Rose for Emily” doesn’t lead anywhere. That’s
merely making a list. That doesn’t build up to a central idea. It won’t prove a thesis.
Simply re-telling the story also doesn’t prove a thesis. It is more summary than essay.
Refer only to pieces of the story which support your thesis.
READ AND RE-READ
“A ROSE FOR EMILY” so the story becomes a “part” of you. Chose a subject from
within “A Rose for Emily,” that interests you. When you’ve learned enough about your
subject, through reading your own research, you should be able to write a general
statement which you believe is true. It might be a statement, for example, about the
overall meaning of “A Rose for Emily,” or perhaps about a kind of symbol which re-
occurs throughout the story, or about how Emily’s father impacted her life, and so on.
That statement will become your thesis.
RESEARCH YOUR THESIS
TO LOCATE NO LESS THAN 6 CREDIBLE SECONDARY SOURCES, which will support
the thesis. List these sources on your Works Cited page, AND cite them within your
essay, as you use evidence from them. (“A Rose for Emily” is your primary source.)
CREDIBLE SOURCES ARE SOURCES WE CAN BELIEVE because they are written by
experts in the field, who have the necessary education and a history of publication in
academic journals and other reliable outlets. Quotes and paraphrases from these
sources are evidence you can use in your essay. But keep quotes short, about 15-20
words. Each quote and paraphrase must be cited to avoid plagiarism.
SOURCES THAT ARE NOT CREDIBLE
INCLUDE BLOGS, OFTEN WRITTEN BY AMATEURS, and unsigned essays in sites like
gradesaver, sparknotes, lit-charts, coursenotes, enotes, and others provided for
students. We don’t know who wrote these essays. Sometimes the writers are students.
I have previously allowed these sources as a step in your learning process. But, for the
rest of this semester, you may not cite such sources in your essays. EVERY SOURCE
YOU CITE MUST HAVE AN AUTHOR WHO IS A KNOWN EXPERT.
USE AN ACADEMIC SEARCH ENGINE
THE VALLEY COLLEGE LIBRARY provides a search engine, called OneSearch, which
will locate credible signed articles for you. It will secure results not available with
Google. OneSearch is on the LAVC home page. You can use this link to access it:
https://lib.lavc.edu/home
NEVER USE AI
TO DO YOUR WRITING. That’s plagiarism which will result in a grade of zero.
