| Course | MSW 545 Social Work Practice - Intervention |
|---|---|
| Week | 4 |
| Paper type | Task assignment write-up |
| Length | About 500 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 545 Week 4
Task Assignment Write-Up for One Task, Calling a Friend From Work on Saturday Morning: How V. Chose It, Rehearsing It Before Leaving the Room, Obstacles as Objects and What the Undone Task Taught Us
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MSW 545: Social Work Practice - Intervention
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Task Assignment Write-Up for One Task, Calling a Friend From Work on Saturday Morning: How V. Chose It, Rehearsing It Before Leaving the Room, Obstacles as Objects and What the Undone Task Taught Us
The Task, in V.'s Words
"Call my friend from work on Saturday morning and ask if we can take the kids to the library together."
How It Was Chosen
In session 7, I asked V. which activities used to make weekends better. V. listed the library, a friend from work and a park. When I asked which felt most doable, V. picked the call because "it's only one thing, and if the answer is no, I can still go." The task came from V.'s list, not mine.
Rehearsed Before It Leaves the Room
We rehearsed. I played the friend. V. said, "Hey, it's V., want to take the kids to the library Saturday?" V. laughed and said it felt strange. We tried again with V. adding, "No pressure if you're busy." V. wrote the friend's number on the back of the activity log.
One Verb, One Task
The task is "call." Not "reconnect with friends" or "be more social." One verb, one time, one person.
Keeping the task to one verb also makes the result clear. A call either happened or did not, and either answer gives us something to look at next week.
Obstacles as Objects
V. named three: V.'s phone might be dead, V. might sleep through the morning and V. might decide it was too awkward. We planned for each: charge the phone Friday night, set an alarm for 9:30, and if it felt awkward, send a text instead.
What Happened
At session 8, V. said the call did not happen. V. slept until 11 and then "felt too dumb calling that late." V. took the child to the library alone on Sunday.
The Undone Task Is the Material
I asked first, before anything else in the session. We looked at what happened: the alarm went off and V. turned it off. V. said Friday night had been bad: the child's other parent canceled the Saturday visit by text at 10 p.m. The task failed because of a Friday event, not a lack of effort. In behavioral activation, an incomplete task is examined for what got in the way rather than treated as failure (Dimidjian et al., 2006). The Sunday library trip counts as an activity.
Next Version
V. will text the friend on Thursday to set the plan in advance. A plan made before the weekend is less vulnerable to Friday nights. V.'s willingness to try again is itself a sign of the working relationship holding (Horvath et al., 2011).
References
Dimidjian, S., Hollon, S. D., Dobson, K. S., Schmaling, K. B., Kohlenberg, R. J., Addis, M. E., Gallop, R., McGlinchey, J. B., Markley, D. K., Gollan, J. K., Atkins, D. C., Dunner, D. L., & Jacobson, N. S. (2006). Randomized trial of behavioral activation, cognitive therapy, and antidepressant medication in the acute treatment of adults with major depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(4), 658-670. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.74.4.658
Horvath, A. O., Del Re, A. C., Flückiger, C., & Symonds, D. (2011). Alliance in individual psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 48(1), 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022186
MSW 545 Week 4 instructions, in plain terms
The task assignment write-up covers one task from choice to result. Quote the task in the client's words and show how it was chosen, ideally from the client's own list. Rehearse it before the client leaves the room and record the rehearsal. Keep the task to one verb, one time and one person. Ask the client to name obstacles and plan for each as an object: a phone to charge, an alarm to set. Then report what happened next session. If the task was not done, treat that as material: ask first, look at what got in the way and revise. A completed task should be written up the same way.
Inside the MSW 545 Week 4 example
The task is quoted: call a friend from work on Saturday and suggest the library. A section shows V. chose it from a list of library, friend and park. The rehearsal has the worker playing the friend and V. adding no pressure if you're busy. The one-verb section explains why call beats reconnect. Obstacles of a dead phone, sleeping late and awkwardness get a charger, a 9:30 alarm and a text option. The outcome reports V. sleeping until 11 and going to the library on Sunday. A section links the failure to a Friday cancellation by the child's other parent and cites Dimidjian et al. (2006). The next version moves planning to Thursday, citing Horvath et al. (2011).
Where the points sit in the MSW 545 Week 4 rubric
The grader looks for one task followed all the way through. A write-up that lists several tasks briefly, or stops at assignment, loses the most. Credit goes to a task the client chose, a rehearsal recorded, obstacles planned as specific objects and an honest report of the result. When a task is undone, the analysis should look for what got in the way, not effort. A revised version of the task shows learning. Partial completions, such as a different activity done instead, should be counted. Sources should explain why examining an undone task is part of the method, and APA style applies. A write-up that reports the client's alternative activity, such as a trip taken on another day, shows the worker looking for what did happen as well as what did not.
Common MSW 545 Week 4 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Write-ups most often fall short by stopping at the assignment and never reporting the result. Another frequent gap is a task too broad to count, such as socialize more. Some papers treat an undone task as resistance and lecture the client. Others skip the rehearsal, which is where most problems show up early. If the task was completed, examine what helped as carefully as you would a failure. A write-up that ends with a smaller or better-timed version of the task, built on what the client reported, shows the method working. Write the obstacles in the client's words and the plan for each beside it; that pairing is what the grader checks first.
Get a MSW-545 Week 4 example written to your instructions
Send the case and the task instructions your classroom published, along with the rubric, and a custom MSW-545 Week 4 write-up comes back written to them inside 24 to 48 hours, free the first time. The section worth setting against your own is the one covering what happens when nothing got attempted.
More MSW 545 papers and MSW samples
- MSW 545 Week 1: From a Wish to a Task Post
- MSW 545 Week 2: Treatment Option Comparison for V.
- MSW 545 Week 3: Client Goal Contract With V.
- MSW 545 Week 5: Psychoeducation Handout
- MSW 545 Week 6: Crisis Step-down Plan
- MSW 545 Week 7: Service Linkage Plan
- MSW 545 Week 8: Session Arc Plan
- MSW 546 Week 4: Practice Effectiveness Memo
- MSW 544 Week 4: Ecomap Write-Up for V.
- MSW 543 Week 4: Rapport Breakdown Analysis
- MSW 542 Week 4: Dual Relationship Walkthrough
MSW 545 Week 4 questions, answered
How small should the task be?
Small enough to finish inside the gap between appointments by somebody having an ordinary week rather than a good one. A useful test is whether the person could describe doing it in a single sentence afterward. Tasks needing a chain of successful moves produce reports about the move that broke, which teaches something but rarely earns the row the assignment wrote.
What if the person did not do it?
Then the write-up gets more interesting, and classrooms reward that. The document says what got in the way, in the same concrete register it used to set the task, adjusts the size or the timing, and records whether the obstacle was one the plan already knew about. Rewriting the task as an easier version of itself, unexplained, is the move that loses marks.
Does the task have to come from the person?
In most sections yes, and the write-up shows the route it took: what was offered, what the person shaped it into, what they turned down. A task the worker selected and the person accepted is defensible where the document says plainly that this is what happened. What reads badly is consent asserted in one clause with nothing behind it.
Where can I find a free MSW 545 Week 4 sample paper?
Below the summary you will find the entire MSW 545 Week 4 write-up of one Saturday phone call, from V.'s list through rehearsal to the missed result.
Why did the task fail in the MSW 545 Week 4 sample?
The child's other parent canceled a Saturday visit by text at 10 p.m. Friday, and V. turned off the alarm after a bad night; the task was moved to a Thursday text.