I cooked, Jose cleaned, I dressed Fernando, Jose put him to bed. As my step-dad slipped away, my mom continued working, and Fernando’s care was left to Jose and me. When I was eight, my younger brother Fernando’s birth complicated things even further. But our prosperity was short-lived as my step dad’s chronic alcoholism became more and more recurrent. He paid attention to the needs of my mom, my brother, and me. For a brief period of time the quality of our lives slowly started to improve as our soon-to-be step-dad became an integral part of our family. Living without a father meant money was tight, mom worked two jobs, and my brother and I took care of each other when she worked. He’d hurt my mom physically and mentally, and my brother Jose and I had shared the mental strain. Regardless, I knew what was happening: my dad was being put under arrest for domestic abuse. I held tightly to a tube of toothpaste because I’d been sent to brush my teeth to distract me from the commotion.

Here’s a sample essay that follows this format: WHAT HAD TO BE DONEĪt six years old, I stood locked away in the restroom. Reflection on how your experiences have shaped you and why that matters. Lessons and insights you’ve gained through these experiences. These actions help to illustrate your values and growth. Various obstacles you’ve had to overcome.Īctions you took to overcome those challenges and their effects, often to meet specific needs. This part gets into specific detail regarding a specific challenge the student has faced, and the various effects of that challenge. While those may be fairly clear just based on their names, here’s a brief breakdown, followed by a sample essay to illustrate:

You can think of this approach to writing an essay as breaking down into three basic sections: It’s a structure as old as storytelling itself, and storytellers have been using it for thousands of years. Here’s the structure that most American films use.

Narrative rough draft example