| Course | MSW 544 Social Work Practice - Assessment |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Genogram narrative |
| Length | About 490 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 544 Week 3
Genogram Narrative for V.'s Family Across Three Generations: The Household Drawn as It Actually Lives, a Key Another Reader Can Use, Relationship Quality Described in Words, Patterns With a Count and the Branch Nobody Discussed
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MSW 544: Social Work Practice - Assessment
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Genogram Narrative for V.'s Family Across Three Generations: The Household Drawn as It Actually Lives, a Key Another Reader Can Use, Relationship Quality Described in Words, Patterns With a Count and the Branch Nobody Discussed
The Household, Drawn
The current household is V., 28, and V.'s child, 4, in a one-bedroom apartment leased in V.'s name since December 2026. The diagram encloses only these two in the household line. V.'s sister, 31, lives ten minutes away. V.'s mother, 54, lives in another state. V.'s father died in 2015. The child's other parent lives across town and sees the child every other Saturday.
The Key
Squares for men, circles for women and a diamond for the child, whose gender is not relevant to this assessment; a line through a symbol for a death with the year; a solid line for a close relationship, a jagged line for conflict, a dotted line for distance and a double slash for a cut-off. The conventions follow common genogram practice (McGoldrick et al., 2020).
Quality in Words
V. and the sister: close and practical; the sister provided housing from July to October 2026 and still picks up the child on Wednesdays. V. and the mother: distant; phone calls on holidays; V. says the mother "never asks how I'm doing, only how the baby is." V. and the child's other parent: conflicted; arguments at handoffs, no violence reported since the separation in December.
Describing quality in words matters because a solid line between V. and the sister and a solid line between V. and the Head Start teacher would look the same on paper. In words, one is family help with daily tasks and the other is a professional V. trusts with the child.
Patterns With a Count
Depression is reported in three people across three generations: V., V.'s mother, treated in her thirties, and V.'s maternal grandmother, who V. says "stayed in bed a lot." That is three of the four maternal relatives V. could describe. Single parenting appears in two generations: V. and V.'s mother after the parents separated when V. was 8.
The Branch Nobody Discussed
V.'s father's side is blank on the diagram. When asked, V. said, "I don't know them," and changed the subject. The father died when V. was 17. This branch was not explored and is marked as unknown rather than empty.
What the Genogram Suggests
A family pattern of depression supports screening and V.'s own sense that "it runs in the family." The sister is the strongest practical support. The silence about the father's side is a question for later, at V.'s pace.
References
McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R., & Petry, S. (2020). Genograms: Assessment and treatment (4th ed.). W. W. Norton.
The Chamberlain MSW 544 Week 3 instructions
The genogram narrative has two parts that depend on each other. The diagram runs to three generations where the material supports it, uses standard symbols and carries a key so a stranger can read it. The narrative explains relationship quality in words, since lines alone are ambiguous. Draw the household as it actually lives, not as a nuclear family template. Put a count behind any pattern you claim, such as how many members across generations share a condition. Note branches nobody discussed and mark them as unknown rather than empty. When family members disagree about a relationship, draw the version from your best source and note the disagreement.
Inside the MSW 544 Week 3 example
The household section draws V. and the child in a one-bedroom apartment, with a sister ten minutes away, a mother in another state, a father who died in 2015 and the child's other parent across town. The key section lists symbols for gender, death, closeness, conflict, distance and cut-off, citing McGoldrick et al. (2020). The quality section describes the sister as close and practical, the mother as distant and the other parent as conflicted without violence. The pattern section counts depression in three of four maternal relatives across three generations and single parenting in two generations. The father's side is marked unknown. A final section links the pattern to screening and names the sister as the strongest support.
MSW 544 Week 3 rubric: what full points look like
Faculty grade the narrative more heavily than the drawing. A diagram with no key, or a narrative that repeats the lines without explaining quality, loses ground. Credit goes to the household drawn as it lives, relationship quality described in words, patterns with counts and branches marked as unknown. A key a stranger could use earns marks. Theory may explain a pattern once the pattern is established by count. Disagreements about relationships should be noted rather than resolved silently. Sources on genogram conventions should be cited in APA. Three generations is standard where information allows. A narrative that explains why a solid line means something different between two pairs earns marks for precision.
MSW 544 Week 3 help from the desk
Genogram narratives most often lose points by drawing a template family that does not match the household. Another common gap is claiming patterns, such as depression runs in the family, without a count. Some narratives leave unknown branches blank, which reads as no one there. Others explain every line with theory before establishing what the lines mean. If the family disagrees about a relationship, draw your best-sourced version and write the other in the narrative. A narrative that ends with one practical use of the genogram shows why it was drawn. Count every relative the person can describe before claiming a pattern, and give the count as a fraction.
Get a MSW-544 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Send the genogram instructions and the symbol key your section issued, together with the case material or interview notes the drawing is built from, and a custom example comes back inside 24 to 48 hours drawn to that key. The first one is free, and the narrative arrives with the diagram it belongs to described in full.
More MSW 544 papers and MSW samples
- MSW 544 Week 1: Rebuilding a Borrowed Line Post
- MSW 544 Week 2: Presenting Problem Summary for V.
- MSW 544 Week 4: Ecomap Write-up
- MSW 544 Week 5: Collateral Source Memo
- MSW 544 Week 6: Life History Timeline
- MSW 544 Week 7: Strengths and Needs Grid
- MSW 544 Week 8: Risk Screening Summary
- MSW 545 Week 3: Client Goal Contract
- MSW 543 Week 3: Opening Session Transcript
- MSW 546 Week 3: Baseline and Follow-up Chart
- MSW 542 Week 3: Memo to a Mandated Client
MSW 544 Week 3 questions, answered
How many generations does the diagram need?
Whatever the assignment names, and three is the common request. What matters more is that every person on the page has a reason for being there. A fourth generation entered because the template had room, with no information attached to anybody in it, reads as padding, while a missing generation the material clearly supplied reads as an omission.
The family disagrees about a relationship. Which version gets drawn?
Draw the one your source describes and record the disagreement in the narrative, naming who says what. A diagram built from a single interview represents a single account, and saying so protects the document. Where the material carries two speakers describing the same relationship differently, the narrative holds both and the drawing follows whichever the assignment names as primary.
Can the narrative use theory to explain the pattern it found?
Sparingly, and only to name the pattern rather than to account for it. Reporting that a caregiving arrangement repeats across three generations is inside the assignment. Arguing what produced it, or what anybody should do about it, moves into work the program places later. Where a section does invite a framework, keep it to a sentence tied to something the diagram shows.
Where can I find a free MSW 544 Week 3 sample paper?
Below the facts table, the MSW 544 Week 3 genogram narrative for V.'s family is reproduced with its key and counted patterns.
What pattern does the MSW 544 Week 3 sample count?
Depression in three of the four maternal relatives V. could describe, across three generations, and single parenting in two generations.