Essay 4–Search for Meaning
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Narrative Essay with Research
In this essay, I’m asking you to write a narrative essay about one significant experience you had in life and
how that experience changed you. Once you have your narrative under way and know what the focus of
your essay is, think about how your experience might be applied to a larger group of people. How might your
stories help others, in other words?
Tips: Write so readers can vividly relive the experience and learn something about and themselves. Be
passionate. Talk about a particular moment (stay away from generalities). Include characters. Create
memorable descriptions.
Audience: Your kids or long time partner, friend, or some other family members coming together for the
reading of your will after your death.
Sources: Integrate quotes and anecdotes from the three books assigned in class, at minimum. For
example, how do you make sense of it through the lens of Johnson’s concepts (for added inspiration, I
would highly recommend reading to the end of at least section II in Owning Your Own
Shadow), Santiago’s journey through the desert, and Frankl’s sense of meaning through
suffering? You may use other sources, too.
Format: Use one inch margins and Times New Roman, 12 point font. Cite your sources for the essay in
MLA format (including a Works Cited page).
Minimum: 8 pages.
Important: Your essay must be persuasive, showing what you learned from your experience and how.
Very Important: You are not writing your life story. Rather, you are writing about one challenging experience
in your life. This experience could have gone on for several years (e.g., overcoming cancer, a difficult death
or break-up, sexual assault, deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan, living on the streets, etc.), but it is one
experience from which you suffered greatly (and perhaps are suffering still).
Very very important: Have fun. This is an opportunity to address something that has perhaps haunted you.
No better way is there to start healing it than to write it out as honestly as you can. Be authentic. And keep in
mind what Frankl says here:
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves
Essay 4–Search for Meaning
and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from
life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead
to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life–daily and hourly. Our answer must consist,
not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the
responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each
individual. (76-77)
Total Points: 100.0
Criteria Ratings Pts
20.0 to >15.0 pts
Excellent
15.0 to >8.0 pts
Good
8.0 to >0.0 pts
Satisfactory
0.0 pts
Didn’t
Meet
Criteria
20.0 pts
20.0 to >15.0 pts
Excellent
15.0 to >8.0 pts
Good
8.0 to >0.0 pts
Satisfactory
0.0 pts
Didn’t
Meet
Criteria
20.0 pts
20.0 to >15.0 pts
Excellent
15.0 to >8.0 pts
Good
8.0 to >0.0 pts
Satisfactory
0.0 pts
Didn’t
Meet
Criteria 20.0 pts
20.0 to >15.0 pts
Excellent
15.0 to >8.0 pts
Good
8.0 to >0.0 pts
Satisfactory
0.0 pts
Didn’t
Meet
Criteria
20.0 pts
20.0 to >15.0 pts
Excellent
15.0 to >8.0 pts
Good
8.0 to >0.0 pts
Satisfactory
0.0 pts
Didn’t
Meet
Criteria
20.0 pts
Content: Student writes about one
particular experience in their life with
vivid detail. In the course of the paper,
they’ve discussed not only how the
experience changed them, but they’ve
considered how the lessons learned
might apply to (and help a) larger group
of people.
Introduction/Conclusion: Student
employs an enticing, short anecdote in
the introduction. Student uses one
sentence to transition to thesis and one
sentence thesis statement. Student
restates the thesis and finishes the
anecdote in the conclusion.
Citing Sources: Student uses the
sandwich method in every quote,
paraphrase, and summary. The examples
in support of every quote, paraphrase, or
summary, are appropriate to the context,
and clear.
Sources: Student uses sufficient quotes,
paraphrases, and/or anecdotes from the
three books assigned this term.
Formatting & Organization: The paper is
at least 8 pages. It is well-written, with
little punctuation or sentence errors. It is
formatted to MLA and includes a Works
Cited page (not included in the 8-page
count). It also includes an outline at the
end.
