| Course | MSW 521 Social Work Response to Mass Violence and Disasters |
|---|---|
| Week | 6 |
| Paper type | Public message draft |
| Length | About 400 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Memo with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 521 Week 6
Memorandum
To: Families and residents of Harbor View Apartments
From: Tamarack County Emergency Management, public information officer
Date: February 13, 2026, 6:00 a.m.
Re: Where to go today and what we know
The Message
If you lived at Harbor View Apartments, or a member of your family did, go to the Family Assistance Center at the Tamarack County Fairgrounds Exhibition Hall today. It opens at 8 a.m. and stays open until 8 p.m.
At the center you can ask about a family member, get help with a place to stay, replace medicines and talk with someone. You do not need any papers. Bring your phone if you have it.
If you cannot get there, call 555-0142. Someone will answer all day and all night.
As of 6 a.m., we know that seven people have died and 31 people are in the hospital. This number may change. Some residents have not yet been accounted for. We will not share names until families have been told in person.
The fire is out. Do not go to the building. The area around Harbor View is closed while firefighters and gas crews make it safe.
The next update will be at noon today, from the Tamarack County Emergency Management Director.
Notes on the Draft
The first line names the people the message is for and the place to go. The action, go to the center or call, appears in the first 40 words. The death count is marked as changing, because the count was expected to rise as the search continued; stating it as final would invite a correction that damages trust. The message gives the time of the next update and who will give it, so families know when to listen again. Sentences are short and mostly one clause, because the message will be read on local radio and translated into Spanish by a live interpreter. Crisis communication research stresses early, honest and repeated messages that tell people what they can do (Reynolds & Seeger, 2005).
What Was Left Out
Sympathy appears in the director's spoken remarks, not in the written message. Agency names, coordination details and the cause of the explosion are left out; families cannot act on any of them. The message is written to families, not to reporters, and follows public health guidance on giving people one action and one place (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018).
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC) manual. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Reynolds, B., & Seeger, M. W. (2005). Crisis and emergency risk communication as an integrative model. Journal of Health Communication, 10(1), 43-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730590904571
The Chamberlain MSW 521 Week 6 instructions
The public message assignment asks for the actual words, and they should be shorter than you expect. Open with the fact that matters to the families the message is for, not with sympathy. Give one thing the reader should do, with where to go and when. Mark facts that will change, such as counts, as current rather than final. Say when the next update will come and who will give it. Write sentences that can be read aloud on radio and interpreted live, mostly one clause each. Leave out what readers cannot act on, such as coordination between agencies or speculation about cause. If your section asks for notes on the draft, explain the choices briefly after the message.
How the MSW 521 Week 6 example is put together
The message tells anyone who lived at Harbor View, or has family who did, to go to the family assistance center at the fairgrounds from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., or call a number answered day and night. It lists what families can do there and that no papers are needed. It gives seven deaths and 31 hospitalized as of 6 a.m., marks the number as changing and withholds names. It tells people to stay away from the site and names the noon update and its speaker. The notes explain the first line, the timing of the action, the changing count and short sentences for radio, citing Reynolds and Seeger (2005), and the omissions, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018).
MSW 521 Week 6 rubric: what full points look like
Marks go first to a message written to the people it names. A draft addressed to reporters, with paragraphs about coordination, loses the most. Next is a message with no action, only sympathy and reassurance. Faculty credit a first line that tells families where to go, one clear action, facts marked as changing and the time of the next update. Plain sentences suited to being read aloud earn credit. A figure presented as final that later changes is a common deduction. Brief notes on choices, where required, should cite crisis communication guidance in APA. Length limits are enforced, and shorter usually scores better.
Common MSW 521 Week 6 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The message that loses most is written for the press: agency names, coordination and a statement of concern, with nothing a family can do. Another common problem is sympathy in the first paragraph and the action buried at the end. Some drafts give a death count as final, then must correct it, which costs trust. Others forget to say when the next update will come. For a chemical release or school lockdown you have built yourself, the same pattern holds: who the message is for, one action, changing facts marked, the next update. A message drafted for your incident would be read aloud once to check that each sentence is understood on first hearing.
Get a MSW-521 Week 6 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 6 instructions with the channel your section specified, since a printed sheet, a text alert and a podium statement are graded differently, and a custom message draft comes back inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. If a word limit is set, the draft is written to it rather than trimmed to it afterward.
More MSW 521 papers and MSW samples
- MSW 521 Week 1: Disaster Threshold Post
- MSW 521 Week 2: Gas Explosion Phase Analysis
- MSW 521 Week 3: Activation Checklist
- MSW 521 Week 4: Family Assistance Center Plan
- MSW 521 Week 5: Displaced Household Needs Survey
- MSW 521 Week 7: Long Term Recovery Plan
- MSW 521 Week 8: After Action Review
- MSW 524 Week 6: Intake Screening Script
- MSW 520 Week 6: Rohingya Chicago Diaspora Assessment
- MSW 525 Week 6: School Coordination Memo
- MSW 517 Week 6: Referral Form Change Memo
MSW 521 Week 6 questions, answered
How long should the message be?
Shorter than most drafts. The example runs a few short paragraphs and would be read aloud in under a minute, because the format has to survive being repeated by somebody who heard it once. Where a section sets a word count, that governs. Where it does not, the working test in the example is whether a reader could act on it after a single pass.
Does the assignment want the strategy or the actual words?
Most sections want the words, with a short note on channel and audience attached. The example gives the message in full as it would be posted, then half a page explaining why that channel, why that wording and why the update interval was set where it was. Sending both is safer than sending a plan about a message nobody wrote.
What about a message that has to mention deaths?
It states the confirmed count as confirmed, names who is carrying out identification and how families will be contacted, and does not describe how anyone died. The example keeps that section brief and points families to the assistance center rather than to a phone line that will be jammed. Where the section requires it, a line on support services follows, not before.
Where can I find a free MSW 521 Week 6 sample paper?
A complete MSW 521 Week 6 public message draft for families the morning after a fictional explosion is available below, with margin notes on each choice.
Why does the MSW 521 Week 6 sample mark the death count as changing?
Because the count was expected to rise as the search continued, and a figure stated as final that later changes damages trust in every later message.