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Essay on My Family

List of essays on my family, essay on my family – short essay for kids in english (essay 1 – 250 words), essay on my family – for children (essay 2 – 300 words), essay on my family – paragraph (essay 3 – 400 words), essay on my family –topics (essay 4 – 500 words), essay on my family (essay 5 – 500 words), essay on my family – why i love my family (essay 6 – 500 words), essay on my family – for school students (class 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 standard) (essay 7 – 500 words), essay on my family (essay 8 – 750 words), essay on my family – long essay (essay 9 – 1000 words).

A family is one of the greatest gift god has given to all living creatures on the earth including humans. It is a privilege to have a happy family as not everyone in the world has it.

The joy of living with your parents, fighting with your siblings over petty can just make you smile the moment you think of it. In order to inculcate the values of a family in the students, we have composed some short essays for students.

These essays are suited for students of all ages and classes. Not only these essays shall give an insight on how a family should be but shall also enrich the students with the moral values of a family.

Audience: The below given essays are exclusively written for kids, children and school students.

Family is important to every one of us and we all love our family. Wherever we go in this world and whatever we may achieve, our heart and soul will always be in our home because it is where our beautiful family is. Nothing in this world can be stronger than the bonding of the blood . The members of the same family may have differences of opinions, may quarrel often for silly things but in spite of all these it is our family that supports us during our ups and downs.

As the saying goes, “ Family is the best thing you could ever wish for. They are there for you during the ups and downs and love you no matter what”.

Contrary to this saying, we cannot choose our family as we choose our friends. But I can say that I’m blessed with a wonderful family. My family is very small with four members – my mother, my father, my elder sister and me. My family is a middle class family and my father is officially the bread winner of our family. My mother supports him financially by taking tuitions for school children.

We do not have much money or wealth but what my family has in abundance is love for each other which cannot be replaced by anything else in this world. My father and my mother are the role models to my sister and me. They struggle a lot to give us a better life. More than anything they have taught us discipline and morals of life which is helping us to lead our lives in a righteous path even today.

I cannot ask anything more to God since he has already showered me with my family which I treasure the most every second and will safeguard even in the future.

The family is a valuable god gift which plays a most crucial role in every individual’s life. I love my family very much because all of my family members stand in my good as well as bad times. From moral teachings to love and support, my family has always helped me without any demand. There is no doubt that we experience our biggest triumphs when we really connect to them.

My family is like a strong pillar for me, on which I can rely blindly anytime I require support. From my family, I have learned the social graces of loyalty & cooperation.

My family consists of my grandfather, my grandmother, my mother, my father, two young sisters and myself. My grandparents are the pillars of my family and my grandfather is the head of my family. He is the one whose decision relating to any matter is final and all of us do respect it.

Right from my childhood, my family members have prepared me for the challenges that I’ll face in the years ahead. In addition to this, all of my family members help and serve each other at times of need. These qualities that I have learnt from my family has helped me to shape my adult life in a right manner.

I am really very attached to my grandfather. He holds an excellent life experience because he has already faced so many ups and downs. My Grandfather has helped me to build my perception & vision towards society.

My family has always been there to motivate and encourage me to overcome all difficulties in life and achieve success. The role of every member in my family is unique and important in their own way. I thank God that I have grown up in a family full of love and discipline. My family values will definitely help me in becoming a better person.

A person without family and its love never becomes completely happy in his/her life. I am complete and happy with my family that includes five members. My family is a group of five including me, father, mother, brother, and sister. Family bonding is a unique type of love that gives you every lesson needed to live a harmonious life.

Growing under the supervision of a caring and loving family will increase our social values and overall well-being. Each member of my family carries out equal responsibility in sculpting the strong bonding needed for a better future and develop moral importance in each other.

My father owns a successful business of office stationery store. He uses the money to cover all our expenses and give a better lifestyle to the family. He works hard day and night to get us better education, food, home, etc. He hides all his tiredness when he comes home after a long day to spend quality time with us.

My mother is a talented homemaker who also does a part-time tailoring at home. She does all her duties with at most interest, from taking care of us to all the household chores and finds time to pursue her passion as well. She is a multi-tasker and does all the tasks from helping us in our studies to preparing delicious healthy foods to sculpt us into a better human being.

My brother is an engineering graduate and does a job in a well-known company. He is my best well-wisher and helps me in all ups and downs. My sister is also an engineering graduate and an employee in an IT company. She always finds time to help me with all my difficulties and she is my secret keeper too.

My family is a lifeline to whom I can run to, whatever may be the situation I am facing. My family guides me to be a good person and help me in nurturing good values. We, humans, are animals that live together spreading love and care for each other, and this togetherness is called family. The absence of such a divine bonding make us equal to animals.

Family value and growing in such a caring surrounding helps me to pass all the struggles and hardships that I face in my daily life. Whatever be the situation we are facing, our family will never leave us alone. My family is a blessing for me and I value everyone in my family with equal respect and love.

Most of the people in the world are blessed with having a family. A family, with whom you can share all your joys and sorrows, who is there to guide you through your growing years, who stands by you in the toughest of the situations. I too am blessed to have such a family.

My family is one the most bizarre family in the world. We are four people, my mother, my father, my younger brother and me. While my father is the one who does work for a living, it is my mother who is the boss of the house. My father is a humble person. He is an officer in a government department. My mother is a housewife. It is our mother who takes care of our studies as our father is often busy with his official assignments and even travels for days together. We just miss him when he is not at home.

He never scolds us. But, our mother is just the opposite. She wants us to remain disciplined and we often get scolded by her. However, our father comes to our rescue most of the times. My brother, still in school is the one with whom I love to spend my time the most. Not because I love to play with him, but because, being the elder sister, I enjoy instructing him and showing him who is more powerful at home. He, at a time, seems so helpless when our mother says to obey his sister. I just love that moment. But not all days are the same. I hate having to study all along while he gets to play more than me.

The Atmosphere in my Family:

We largely have a peaceful atmosphere at home. After school, our time is spent on studying, playing and watching television, which of course our mother does not like. Unlike other couples, my mother and father seldom have a fight. In fact, as soon we see an argument brewing up, one of them just withdraws and it is just rare to see a heated conversation between them. This is what I like the most about them as I feel that my parents are so cool. It is only me and brother who love to fight with each other.

However, we know that behind those fights, it is actually our love for each other which binds us together. I just enjoy being at home spending time with my parents and my brother. I just feel how bad it would be when tomorrow I and my brother shall move on for our professional lives and we shall not be able to spend much time together. However, it is the memories of today which shall be with me forever and will bring a smile on my face anytime when I feel low.

The Importance of a Family:

A family is said to be the first school of a child. It is from here you start to learn how to speak, walk and interact with the world. It is important to value the importance of a family in one’s life. At times, people feel that they are grown-ups and that their parent’s advice does not matter anymore, but that is not true. It is the elders of the family who at any given of time would know the world better than us and we should all respect our family members and love our siblings as well. It is the family who builds our character and we should feel fortunate to have a family around us.

Introduction

My family values are what I take so dear to my heart because they have made me what I am today and I plan on passing these great values to my children in future. Every family has those things, acts and values that they hold in high esteem and they cherish so much. These vales have become a part of them: most times, it is what distinguishes the traits in each family and in some ways it makes or mars the future of the family members. Same applies to my family, we have some set values that has become a part of us and it has made my life a lot better because I have become a better person who is not only valuable to himself but also to the society at large. I will be sharing some of these values with you.

My Family Values:

Some of my family values include:

1. Honesty:

This is a principle that is highly protected in my family. My dad has this saying that, “honesty is the best policy.” Ever since I was little, my family has taught me how to be honest and the benefits that lie within. Sometimes, my parents even test us in ways we were not expecting and a reward is given to the person that comes out honest. This is one of my family values that I cherish so much and I am proud that it is what my family hold in high esteem.

2. Kindness to Others:

This is not a common trait to all. My mom has this belief that if the world and everybody in it shows love and kindness to one another, there will be no hatred and wars will be eradicated. This is a family value that we cherish so much. I learnt to show love to everybody. Even when we did not have much, my parents will still give to those who are needy. My dad says that the world is like a river, we would eventually flow into one another later and you do not know the future, the person you helped today might eventually be of help to you tomorrow.

3. Education:

This is a value that has been passed from generation to generation in my family. My dad would say that education is the best legacy you can give to a child. My family does everything in their capacity for you to get a sound and benefitting education. The acquisition of knowledge is also quite important. All of us try to gain more and more knowledge because we all have a family slogan that says “knowledge is power and that power makes me a hero.”

4. Dress and Appearance:

This is a religious value we cherish in my family. My dad would say that you are addressed the way you dress. I do not want to be address wrongly and give out a wrong impression. So, our appearance really matter a lot to us and the way we dress.

Conclusion:

Every family has one thing or the other that they hold in high esteem and tend to pass on from generation to generation. This is what makes a family a united sect not because we are related by blood but because of we share the same values.

Introduction:

Why I love my family is a question that has been floating through my mind for a very long time because no matter how hard I try to pin out a reason why I love them, I just can’t find one. This can be due to fact that they mean the whole world to me and I will do anything for them. I love my family a lot and I would like to share some of the reasons why I love my family and will never trade them for anything.

Why I Love My Family:

I have a family that consists of 6 people: my father, my mother and four children which includes me. For you to understand why I love my family I will tell you a little about each of them and why I love them so much.

My father is the best father in the world: well, that’s what I say. He is a business manager. I look up to my father a lot because I will like to take a lot of his behaviours and make it mine. He taught me to be contented with whatever I have. We did not have much when I was growing up; my dad lost his job and still did not allow anything of the pressure change how he behaved to us at home. He is caring, gentle, accommodating and disciplined.

My mum is the best cook in the world. I do not know where I would be today without my mum. I owe her a lot. She is a teacher by profession and this fascinates me a lot because not only is she inculcating knowledge in the young minds of tomorrow, she is also building the future of our society at large. I want to be like my mum. I remember those times when she had to sacrifice when the most precious of her things just to make me happy. She is loving, caring, understanding, accommodating. In fact, she is everything you can ever wish for in a mother.

My elder sisters are the best. Although they can be frustrating sometimes but that is mostly because of my stubbornness. They pretend they do not really care but deep inside they do. The things they do even subconsciously say otherwise. I remember a day in elementary school, I was being bullied a boy in class. On this particular day, he hit me. Unknowing to me, my sister heard about it and she beat the boy and made him apologise to me, I felt so happy that day because I had someone who had my back.

My brother is one of the best gifts I have received. He is the last child and this gives him an opportunity to be annoying if you know what I mean. He is joyful and always ready to heed correction. There was this day, I heard him bragging to his friends about how awesome I am, and I was the happiest that day.

We all have one reason or the other on why we love our family. I love mine because they are the best gift I could ever ask for and the fact that they have been there for me through the good, bad and funny times.

Importance of family is something that is greatly overlooked and underrated in the world we live in today. The definition that the family had about one hundred years before now was very clear. Back then, a family was believed to be a unit that consisted of the father that was in charge of the finances of the family, a mother whose primary duty was to look after the home and take care of the children and then there were the children. Largely based on the region you are from, a family can also include members of the extended family like aunts, uncles and grandparents. This type of family system is referred to as joint family.

Family Importance:

A family that is important is one that is very strong. If a family is going to be very strong, there is a need for the bond between them to be very strong. Bonds that help in keeping the members of a family with each other are relationships. If there are very strong relationships among all the members of a family, there is going to be stronger commitment between all of them and the family as a unit will be very important.

Better communication is also a result of family relationships that are very strong. If all the family members can take time out to talk and know each other well, the bond between them is bound to be very strong. Even if the conversations are about big things or small things, it does not really matter. The most important thing is that all family members stay connected to one another. It is very important that they all list to each other and understand every member.

How to make Family Bonds Very Strong:

We have various things that can help our family bond to improve.

A few of them include:

1. Love: love is the most important thing we need for our bonds as a family to improve. When we love the members in our family, we will also be able to know all about privacy, intimacy, caring, belonging and sharing. When there is love in a family, the family will prosper.

2. Loyalty: loyalty is something that comes as a result of love. Family members should stay devoted to each other. It is important that we are able to count on our family to have our back anytime we are facing problems.

The importance of family can never be overstated even though we live in a different time now and our attitudes to relationships, marriage and what a family should be has changed. The family is something that we need to help share our problems and be there for us anytime we have issues. A lot of the things that were not acceptable in the past and we now see as normal. Even with all the changes that the society has effected on our family system, the family still remains the major foundation of our society and this will remain the same.

My family is the best gift I have got. A family can be simply said to mean a social group of different people in our society that includes one or more parents and also their children. In a family, every member of the family commits to other members of the family in a mutual relationship. A family is a very important unit and the smallest unit in the society. A family whether a big one or a small one is of very great importance and use to all of its members and is believed to be the unit of our society that is strongest because the society is formed from the coming together and culmination of various families.

In many cultures, the family serves a child’s first school where the child learns all about their traditions and cultures more importantly learn about all the rudimentary values in life. A family is very essential in the teaching of healthy habits and good manners to all the members of the family. It gives the members of the family the opportunity to become people with better character in our society. I feel very lucky to be born into a small and lovely family; I learnt a lot of things from my family.

I am from a middle class and average family with six members (my father, my mother, my grandmother, my grandfather, my younger brother and me). My grandfather is the head of the family and we all respect and listen to him. He is really wise and tries to advise each and every one of us using his many life experiences. He has been involved in many interesting and adventurous activities that he tells me about all the time. Most of the time, he has the final say on all of our family issues and he does his best to make all his decisions impartial.

Any time we are eating today as a family, he sits at the top of the table; we all have designated seats at the dining table. When my brother and I are available, my grandfather teaches us about our traditions and cultures. My grandfather is very friendly and has a cool and great personality and tries to talk nicely and calmly to everyone passing across his message without being rude. He helps my brother and sometimes me with our assignments. He majorly teaches us about all of the tools we need to be successful in life including punctuality, discipline, moral, cleanliness, continuity, honesty, hard work and trustworthiness.

My lovely grandmother is one of the nicest people I know, she tells my brother and I lovely stories every night. My father is a civil engineer and he is very hardworking, sincere and punctual. He is the breadwinner of the family and does his best to provide for every member of the family even if that means he has to work extra hours. My mother is very sweet and takes care of every member of the family even though she works as an accountant at a firm. She wakes up very early in the morning to make preparations for the day. My brother is a funny and jovial person that enjoys sporting activities and I love him so much.

Sometimes I wish my cousins, uncles and aunts lived with us, I love having them around. There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages of having everyone around. I have highlighted some below.

Some advantages are:

1. It gives a better routine of living that can contribute to a proper growth.

2. Having a joint family helps in following the numerous principles of an equitable economy and helps teach discipline and respect. It also teaches us how to share the burden of other family members.

3. There is the understanding of having to adjust to the needs of other family members.

4. The children in a large family get to grow up in a happy environment because they have children of their age around that they can play with.

5. All the members of a joint family are usually very disciplined and responsible as everyone has to follow the instructions of the family head.

Some of the disadvantages include:

1. There is always the chance of a rift or fight between the family members because of the possible imbalance of feelings of oneness, brotherly love and feeling of generosity.

2. There is a chance of the members of the family that earn very high looking down on members of the family that do not.

The concept of family is important in India for every individual. Family defines an individual background in terms of social relations and growth. Families influence the lives of individuals from childhood to adulthood especially in decisions concerning life milestones like marriage and career paths. Indian families live together for up to four generations under one roof and they manage to maintain lose family relations compared to other families across the globe. Indian families tend to stick to their cultural practices as a family and they maintain religious practices that cut across the family. Elders in Indian families are respected by the members of the family and their opinions are considered during decision making.

What Family Really Means :

Basic knowledge defines a family as a group of people who share genetic and legal bonds. However, the concept of family means a lot more for other people than just the bond and it incorporates the concepts of culture and religion. In India, the concept of family differs from what the rest of the world perceives as family.

Families in India go beyond nuclear and extend to wider circles, whereby the extended family lives together and are closely related. The relationships in the family are strong such that cousins are considered siblings and aunts and uncles are considered parents. Family also means the unconditional love among the members of the family whereby there is support in terms of finances and emotions.

Why the Family is so important:

The family plays a central role in lives of individuals in teaching of moral values. Parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents have been known to teach the children on morality and disciplinary issue s in most cultures. Both spiritual and moral values are instilled through family. Family give a sense of belonging to individuals because they are over by the family and supported at all times.

A family will always support its members with needs including financial and emotional needs. In a family, there has been established levels of satisfaction and happiness from the joy of being together. Families also helping community development through contributions and participating in activities in the community. The family is important in the society in maintaining order, discipline and peace.

I come from a big family. My family has not moved to an urban area and so we still live as a wider circle together with the extended family. In my nuclear family, I am the first born of four children. I have one sister and two brothers who are still at school. I have three aunts and two uncles. My cousins are twelve in number and most of them are at school except for the youngest ones.

My grandparents are very old and they do not get out of the house much and are being taken care by my parents and aunts. Most of the children are always at school and the house gets quiet but during holiday, we all unite together as a full house. My family is of the middle class in terms of wealth. Our religion is Hindu and we all practice the Indian cultures and traditions. What I love about my family is that everyone is a good cook and the food is always amazing. Members of my family are kind and respectful and that is why we rarely have disputes. The family support is strong and we all love each other.

Why I love My Family:

Having a big family is interesting because the house always feels warm. As I had earlier mentioned, my family is made of good cooks, which makes me love them. There is always teamwork within the family and good relationships are maintained. I like the adventurous nature of my family because we always have fun whenever we go for holiday vacations or have a family event.

Moral cultural and spiritual values are highly cared for in the society. My family is oriented in good moral values and believe we make a good role model for the society. Despite the influence of education, the family has been able to maintain the culture and traditions of Indian people. The love that exists in my family is precious and that is the most important value of all times because what family without love?

Our Weekend Outings and House Parties:

We do not have many of these in our family because of the different schedules among the members. We only have weekend outings and house parties during holidays. Birthday parties are and weddings are the parties that we frequently have as a family. I love parties at home because the food is usually exceptionally good. Also, the dancing and happy faces. Weekend outings are usually in form of picnics and they are usually full of games.

Cousins Visit during Summer:

My family is young and only three of my cousins are in college. The rest are in high school or elementary schools. Whenever my cousins come home from school, it is a happy moment for the whole family and we host parties to welcome them home. Whenever my older cousins are at home, I enjoy their company and I love to hear stories about college because that is where I will be in a few years’ time.

In the spirit of holidays, we have a vacation or two in a year. During these vacations, plans begin early and when the time comes, it is enjoyable and relaxing. Vacations for us as children tend to be more enjoyable because we have an environment away from home and with minimal parental supervision and we tend to explore and talk among ourselves. Team building during vacations strengthens the bond in families.

Family is a blessing to individuals because that is where they belong and it is what defines them. A good family is built through moral values and team effort. Having family events and parties or vacations re important is strengthening the relationships within a family. A happy individual is definitely from a happy family.

Family , My Family , Relationships

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Essay about Family: What It Is and How to Nail It

Humans naturally seek belonging within families, finding comfort in knowing someone always cares. Yet, families can also stir up insecurities and mental health struggles.

Family dynamics continue to intrigue researchers across different fields. Every year, new studies explore how these relationships shape our minds and emotions.

In this article, our dissertation service will guide you through writing a family essay. You can also dive into our list of topics for inspiration and explore some standout examples to spark your creativity.

What is Family Essay

A family essay takes a close look at the bonds and experiences within families. It's a common academic assignment, especially in subjects like sociology, psychology, and literature.

So, what's involved exactly? Simply put, it's an exploration of what family signifies to you. You might reflect on cherished family memories or contemplate the portrayal of families in various media.

What sets a family essay apart is its personal touch. It allows you to express your own thoughts and experiences. Moreover, it's versatile – you can analyze family dynamics, reminisce about family customs, or explore other facets of familial life.

If you're feeling uncertain about how to write an essay about family, don't worry; you can explore different perspectives and select topics that resonate with various aspects of family life.

Tips For Writing An Essay On Family Topics

A family essay typically follows a free-form style, unless specified otherwise, and adheres to the classic 5-paragraph structure. As you jot down your thoughts, aim to infuse your essay with inspiration and the essence of creative writing, unless your family essay topics lean towards complexity or science.

Here are some easy-to-follow tips from our essay service experts:

• Focus on a Specific Aspect: Instead of a broad overview, delve into a specific angle that piques your interest, such as exploring how birth order influences sibling dynamics or examining the evolving role of grandparents in modern families.
• Share Personal Anecdotes: Start your family essay introduction with a personal touch by sharing stories from your own experiences. Whether it's about a favorite tradition, a special trip, or a tough time, these stories make your writing more interesting.
• Use Real-life Examples: Illustrate your points with concrete examples or anecdotes. Draw from sources like movies, books, historical events, or personal interviews to bring your ideas to life.
• Explore Cultural Diversity: Consider the diverse array of family structures across different cultures. Compare traditional values, extended family systems, or the unique hurdles faced by multicultural families.
• Take a Stance: Engage with contentious topics such as homeschooling, reproductive technologies, or governmental policies impacting families. Ensure your arguments are supported by solid evidence.
• Delve into Psychology: Explore the psychological underpinnings of family dynamics, touching on concepts like attachment theory, childhood trauma, or patterns of dysfunction within families.
• Emphasize Positivity: Share uplifting stories of families overcoming adversity or discuss strategies for nurturing strong, supportive family bonds.
• Offer Practical Solutions: Wrap up your essay by proposing actionable solutions to common family challenges, such as fostering better communication, achieving work-life balance, or advocating for family-friendly policies.

Family Essay Topics

When it comes to writing, essay topics about family are often considered easier because we're intimately familiar with our own families. The more you understand about your family dynamics, traditions, and experiences, the clearer your ideas become.

If you're feeling uninspired or unsure of where to start, don't worry! Below, we have compiled a list of good family essay topics to help get your creative juices flowing. Whether you're assigned this type of essay or simply want to explore the topic, these suggestions from our history essay writer are tailored to spark your imagination and prompt meaningful reflection on different aspects of family life.

So, take a moment to peruse the list. Choose the essay topics about family that resonate most with you. Then, dive in and start exploring your family's stories, traditions, and connections through your writing.

• Supporting Family Through Tough Times
• Staying Connected with Relatives
• Empathy and Compassion in Family Life
• Strengthening Bonds Through Family Gatherings
• Quality Time with Family: How Vital Is It?
• Navigating Family Relationships Across Generations
• Learning Kindness and Generosity in a Large Family
• Communication in Healthy Family Dynamics
• Forgiveness in Family Conflict Resolution
• Building Trust Among Extended Family
• Defining Family in Today's World
• Understanding Nuclear Family: Various Views and Cultural Differences
• Understanding Family Dynamics: Relationships Within the Family Unit
• What Defines a Family Member?
• Modernizing the Nuclear Family Concept
• Exploring Shared Beliefs Among Family Members
• Evolution of the Concept of Family Love Over Time
• Examining Family Expectations
• Modern Standards and the Idea of an Ideal Family
• Life Experiences and Perceptions of Family Life
• Genetics and Extended Family Connections
• Utilizing Family Trees for Ancestral Links
• The Role of Younger Siblings in Family Dynamics
• Tracing Family History Through Oral Tradition and Genealogy
• Tracing Family Values Through Your Family Tree
• Exploring Your Elder Sister's Legacy in the Family Tree
• Connecting Daily Habits to Family History
• Documenting and Preserving Your Family's Legacy
• Navigating Online Records and DNA Testing for Family History
• Tradition as a Tool for Family Resilience
• Involving Family in Daily Life to Maintain Traditions
• Creating New Traditions for a Small Family
• The Role of Traditions in Family Happiness
• Family Recipes and Bonding at House Parties
• Quality Time: The Secret Tradition for Family Happiness
• The Joy of Cousins Visiting for Christmas
• Including Family in Birthday Celebrations
• Balancing Traditions and Unconditional Love
• Building Family Bonds Through Traditions

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Family Essay Example

For a better grasp of the essay on family, our team of skilled writers has crafted a great example. It looks into the subject matter, allowing you to explore and understand the intricacies involved in creating compelling family essays. So, check out our meticulously crafted sample to discover how to craft essays that are not only well-written but also thought-provoking and impactful.

Final Outlook

In wrapping up, let's remember: a family essay gives students a chance to showcase their academic skills and creativity by sharing personal stories. However, it's important to stick to academic standards when writing about these topics. We hope our list of topics sparked your creativity and got you on your way to a reflective journey. And if you hit a rough patch, you can just ask us to ' do my essay for me ' for top-notch results!

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FAQs on Writing an Essay about Family

Family essays seem like something school children could be assigned at elementary schools, but family is no less important than climate change for our society today, and therefore it is one of the most central research themes.

Below you will find a list of frequently asked questions on family-related topics. Before you conduct research, scroll through them and find out how to write an essay about your family.

How to Write an Essay About Your Family History?

How to write an essay about a family member, how to write an essay about family and roots, how to write an essay about the importance of family, related articles.

Essay on My Family for School Students and Children

500+ words essay on my family.

Families are an integral part of one’s life. It does not matter if you have a small or big family, as long as you have one. A family serves as the first school to the child where one learns about various things. The basic knowledge about one’s culture and identity comes from their family only. In other words, you are a reflection of your family. All the good habits and manners one has incorporated are from their family only. I feel very lucky to be born in a family which has made me a better person. In my opinion, families are an essential part of one’s being. In this essay on my family, I will tell you why family is important.

Why Families are Important?

Families are a blessing not everyone is fortunate enough to have. However, those who do, sometimes do not value this blessing. Some people spend time away from the family in order to become independent.

However, they do not realize its importance. Families are essential as they help in our growth. They develop us into becoming a complete person with an individual identity. Moreover, they give us a sense of security and a safe environment to flourish in.

You can read essay on my mother here .

We learn to socialize through our families only and develop our intellect. Studies show that people who live with their families tend to be happier than ones living alone. They act as your rock in times of trouble.

Families are the only ones who believe in you when the whole world doubts you. Similarly, when you are down and out, they are the first ones to cheer you up. Certainly, it is a true blessing to have a positive family by your side.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Pillars of Strength

My family has been always by my side in ups and downs. They have taught me how to be a better person. My family consists of four siblings and my parents. We also have a pet dog that is no less than our family.

Within each family member, lies my strength. My mother is my strength as I can always count on her when I need a shoulder to cry on. She believes in me more than any other person. She is the backbone of our family. My father is someone who will always hide away his troubles for the sake of his family.

In short, I will forever be indebted to my family for all they have done for me. I cannot imagine my life without them. They are my first teachers and my first friends.

They are responsible for creating a safe and secure environment for me at home. I can share everything with my family as they never judge one another. We believe in the power of love above everything and that drives us to help each other to become better human beings.

FAQs on Family

Q.1 Why are families important?

A.1 Families are important because they nurture and develop us. They make us happy and give us the chance to become better human beings. Families enhance your confidence and make you believe in yourself.

Q.2 How do families act as pillars of strength?

A.2 Families are the pillars of strength because they give us the courage to face the world. They are always there when we need them. Even in the loneliest of times, families make us feel better.

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How to Write Your Personal and Family Story (Complete Guide)

• Categories: Research for Storytelling , Writing ABC’s
• Tags: featured , Memoir , Writing Narrative

How to write, edit, and publish your personal story and family story.

will present what I have learned from writing personal, individual, and family narratives. This guide is based on my personal and professional experience in interviewing hundreds of people and writing thousands of narratives over the last several decades.

When I first started researching and writing a personal narrative—be it my own or about my mother, family, or others—I wanted to record the profound and thought-provoking experiences that could last for generations. Instead, I found the personal narrative of being about life and how choices determine our course and how our course provides us an opportunity to become the individuals we are and to create the legacy we leave with our ancestral lines. No matter how great or small, every story has value because life was lived, and every life is a gift. The story is about what we did with the gift.

In this “Complete Guide for Writing A Personal Narratives,” I will present what I have learned from writing personal, individual, and family narratives. This guide is based on my personal and professional experience in interviewing hundreds of people and writing thousands of narratives over the last several decades. The following are the topics that will be covered in this guide:

• A Story Worth Writing Begins with an Outline
• Use the “Mapping” Technique for Narrative Outlines
• Writing A Personal Narrative—Draft One
• Ideas for Writing the Paragraph
• Writing A Personal Narrative—Revising the First Draft
• Structure for Writing a Personal Narrativ e
• Support Your Claims in A Personal Narrative
• Include Artifacts, Photos, and Images
• Other Elements to Include in Your Personal Narrative
• How to Organize the Sections of Your Personal Narrative
• Publishing Your Personal Narrative
•   Sharing Your Personal Narrative

Other resources to consider include:

• Complete Guide for Conducting Oral History Interviews
• 7,500-plus Questions About Life to Ask People When Writing Narratives

1. A Story Worth Writing Begins with an Outline

“Why do you need an outline? I already know what I want to say.” These are the words I remember saying in tenth grade as I started my English creative writing course. As I discussed the first writing assignment with my teacher, I assured her that I could finish the story without writing the required outline. She allowed me the opportunity to prove her wrong. After several drafts, I reluctantly told the teacher I could not complete the story in the assigned time. I found myself writing and rewriting. I found myself expanding and deleting sections of each paragraph. It was never wholly what I wanted to say.

The teacher offered me a second chance. This time, I was to use an outline and then write the story. With a new topic, I wrote the outline and finished the story. I don’t remember my grade, but I remember the lesson: a story worth writing begins with an outline.

An outline is a blueprint of your final product—in this case, your narrative. It represents the content of your story, organizing your memories, lessons learned, and supporting details. The outline is all about organization and providing a visual and conceptual design of your writing.

How does an outline help in writing a personal narrative?

The outline helps you expose gaps in your story early in the process and gives you time to fill them in, not to leave out any important events, stories, and ideas that you want to tell. You will understand the full breadth of the story you write, have a clear focus on the detail you want to include with each topic, and always have a reference point to add, rearrange, and delete.

Remember, the outline is a blueprint. Just as blueprints help a builder create a structure, your outline can form the foundation or frame for the first draft.

Writing experience by experience, topic by topic: If your outline is on a computer, you can just click your cursor at any part of the outline you have created and fill in the details. This can help you overcome writer’s block. That is, you can write the third section first if you want. Then simply go back and fill in sections one and two. When you revise, you can make sure all the pieces fit together.

Modifying the design

Outlines are not set in stone. As you write, you may discover that you’ve left out essential information. If you keep a printed copy of your outline handy, you can figure out where in your outline the new information belongs and insert it (don’t be formal about it—just pencil it in). That way, you can see how the addition alters the rest of the story.

Starting again

Sometimes your original outline simply needs to be restructured. If you are careful, this is not a problem, and you can rework the original outline. When you create the new outline (even if it’s simply a sketch), focus on your purpose and who you are writing to.

Using the outline to crosscheck the final draft. Finally, suppose you update your outline as you work rather than abandon it after being created. In that case, you’ll have a handy reference to double-check the organization of the final story. The outline can also provide your section headings and subheadings for a larger story and become the contents table.

What is the outline structure for writing a personal narrative?

Like any good story, a personal narrative has three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. The outline is designed to indicate levels of significance using major and minor headings. You will organize your information from general to specific. For example, the general headings could be as follows:

• Childhood (0-11)
• Adolescence (11-18)
• Early Adulthood (18-25)
• Prime Adulthood (25-45)
• Middle Adult Years (45-65)
• Senior Adulthood (65-present)

And subordinate headings or topics could include:

• Memories of your children
• Community Service
• Health Record
• Physical Characteristics
• Social Life
• Memorable World Events
• Military Service
• Counsel to Posterity

As you create your subheadings, ensure a clear relationship between the subheadings and their supporting elements. Consider the following example:

• Mary Schreiber Attends High School
• High School Attendance
• High School Activities
• Mary Schreiber Summer Work
• Picking fruit (Cherries, Peaches)
• Working at the Midland Cannery

The most important rule for outlining is to be consistent! An outline can use topic or sentence structure, which is explained below.

Sentence Structure

A sentence outline uses complete sentences for all entries and uses correct punctuation.

•  Advantages . Presents a more detailed overview of work, including possible topic sentences, and is easier and faster for transitioning to writing the final paper.

Topic Outline

A topic outline uses words or phrases for all entries and uses no punctuation after entries.

• Advantages. Presents a brief overview of work and is generally more straightforward and faster to write than a sentence outline. Two simple formats seem to work well with creating an individual narrative outline—roman numeral and decimal. They are explained below:

Roman numeral I. Major Topic

A. Main Idea B. Main Idea

1. Detail of Support a. Broken down further

(1) More details (2) More Details

Decimal 1.0 Major Topic

1.1 Main Idea 1.2 Main Idea

1.2.1 Detail of Support

1.2.2.1 More details 1.2.2.2 More details

Regardless of simplicity or complexity, an outline is a pre-writing tool to help you organize your thoughts and create a roadmap for writing your narrative.

Remember, the outline is for you. It exists to help orient you within the individual narrative and to help ensure a complete answer. You can deviate from it if you wish, and as you write, you may find you have more and more ideas. Stop and take the time to brainstorm and write them down, then reassess and adjust your plan.

How do you create an outline for writing a personal narrative?

I have created a simple system for gathering and managing information when you are writing individual narratives. See the article, Easy 7 Step Color-coded File Organizing System for Writing Narratives.” If you have used the system, start with the first folder and move your way back through the folders. The system makes it effortless to create a personal narrative outline

If you didn’t use the system, start at the beginning and outline the significant events of your life. Start with your childhood years and continue through to the present. For example, the following is a very rough outline, using the roman numeral format, of the “childhood years” life stage for Mary Schreiber:

I. Childhood (0-11) (Years covered)

B. Death of Mother

1. Detail of Detail 2. Detail of Detail

C. Life with Uncle Dean and Aunt Janet

1. Detail 2. Detail

a. Detail of Detail

D. Remarriage of Mary’s Father to Step-mother

a. Detail of Detail b. Detail of Detail

Some individuals prefer to pick topics or life stages and answer predetermined questions from each stage of life to help prompt them through.

Return to list of topics for Complete Guide for Guide to Writing A Personal Narrative.

2. Use the “Mapping” Technique for Narrative Outlines

Whenever I need a little bit—or a lot—of extra help developing ideas that I will write about, I use what is called “mapping.” Mapping refers to organizing your ideas visually by connecting one thought with another. Eventually, the mapping will lead you to a list of ideas and a sequence to use them in.

How to use mapping to generate ideas

Use these steps to generate ideas.

• Write the topic in the middle of the page.
• Draw lines that branch out from that topic to other keywords or phrases you associate with that topic.
• As needed, draw more lines that branch out from each of the keywords (subtopics) that help to develop these ideas.
• Now that you have created a few subtopics, evaluate which subtopics go together and can be linked, if any. Connect the ideas that work together with lines.
• If you need to regroup your ideas, write the topic in the middle of the page again and go through the first steps again with the new groupings.
• Continue this process as many times as needed until you can form the topic groupings into the parts of your story or experience. With the bubbles and branches, you can see how they interrelate and work together as a whole.

How to use mapping to sort out stories, experiences, or paragraphs

Use these steps to expand your ideas.

• Write your topic in the middle of a large piece of paper.
• Take your brainstorming list and circle the central ideas.
• Which of those ideas link to other ideas on your page? What would be the main idea? What would be subsidiary or linked ideas?
• Now transfer the main ideas to the mapping page. Draw a circle (bubble) around the idea and then link the ideas with lines, like tree branches.
• By connecting the ideas with branches, you show concepts and ideas interrelate. Continue to add bubbles and branches as the ideas continue to expand. Use lines and branches to show how any of the large or linked ideas interrelate. Don’t be afraid to add bubbles or branches that weren’t in your original preparation writing. Keep those ideas growing!
• When you have completed the exercise, you can see how the ideas fit together. Once you see how the ideas work together, you can list which ideas to use in your writing.

3. Writing A Personal Narrative—Draft One

By now, you should be ready to start writing. Whether you are writing about yourself or someone else, be honest. I have read many personal narratives over the years, and those with the most meaning include true stories about real life. The stories range from the sad and tragic to the exciting, funny, and simple day-to-day.

Gather your resource materials and find a place to write. Gather your outline and any other resource materials near you for easy reference. Now that you are ready sit down and start writing. When you open the doors of memory, you will probably be eager to capture everything just right. Sit in a comfortable place, relax, and take it one page at a time.

Write your first draft as fast as you can, without concern for style and grammar. You may think this contrary to practical writing style but write your first draft as rapidly as possible. The focus of the first draft is to put your thoughts to paper (or keyboard) as quickly as you can. Be yourself—you’ll write faster and more naturally. Don’t think that the first draft has to be perfect—you’ll probably think it’s awful, but if you worry about writing a great first draft, you’ll never finish.

Don’t spend too much time thinking about style and grammar; just write. Let yourself explore the ideas as you go. If you change your mind about saying something, don’t stop to cross it out; write an improved version. You may have a lot of repetition in your first draft. That’s fine. Only if you find you’ve veered far off-course should you revise what you’ve written before moving on. Otherwise, wait until the second draft to make changes in the first part of the book.

Where should you begin in writing a personal narrative?

Remember: you have an outline, so start wherever you like. Start in the beginning, middle, or end. Just start writing. Start writing with the intent of getting some ideas down on paper.

Use memory triggers

A memory trigger can be a question, photograph, letter, or a discussion with a friend with whom you shared an experience. Think about the times you have looked through the photo album and come across pictures and were able to experience a time past as though it was just yesterday. All your memories are still in safekeeping; it’s simply a matter of finding them.

Write your first draft in the way that’s best for you

If you are a good typist, you will probably use the keyboard. If you write longhand, you can write with pen and paper. If you have a computer and use voice-recognition software (like Dragon Naturally Speaking), then use this software to write your first draft. It is essential to write your first draft as quickly and efficiently as possible, focusing on the words but not the way you produce the words. Assume you will be revising anyway.

Use descriptive words

Think about the who, what, where, when, how, and why of each memory. Use your senses to help describe your stories. These details will help bring your stories to life.

Make a note of any ideas

One experience you will have as you write about one topic is receiving inspiration and ideas. Your thoughts will range from a new topic to add to the outline or a piece of information to add to a topic that you just finished. You may get an idea to call Aunt Peggy to ask a specific question or look for a photograph in the scrapbook. Whatever the thought, write it down or capture it electronically. When I am writing, I will keep a digital recorder (or a notebook and pen) with me not to miss those moments.

Bracket the to#ugh to write sections

Put brackets around sections that are tough to write or require further information. When you write your first draft, it’s common to either not has all the information you need or be stumped. You may be writing about a specific memory and think to put in a text from an obituary. Simply use brackets to denote that more information is needed and keep moving. For example, [Need text from Mary Schreiber Obituary] or [Need to confirm the statement made by Uncle George on Midland city project during Depression.] By using brackets, you will save a lot of time and keep your train of thought moving. When you move on to the revision phase of the writing, you can go back and work through the bracketed sections one at a time.

Need help writing?

If you are not confident of your writing ability, join a local or online writers group to learn about the craft of writing or take a writing class at a community college.

4. Ideas for Writing the Paragraph

Sometimes the paragraph you are writing doesn’t seem to want to flow. The following is a simple look at constructing a paragraph, which may help you grow your ideas and write better, easier paragraphs.

A well-written, cohesive paragraph communicates one complete thought. To organize your subtopics into clear, concise thoughts, the following outline of paragraph structure is helpful.

A paragraph begins with the topic sentence, followed by supporting details and ending with closure.

• Topic sentence. The topic sentence states the main idea of the paragraph. The topic sentence is usually the first sentence of the paragraph but can be in the middle of the end.
• Supporting details . Once you have the topic sentence, it needs to have supporting details, which can be explained, examples, stories, facts, or a combination of these things. The supporting details will develop your topic statement and show your idea.
• Closure. This is where you bring your ideas to a close and link your ideas to the next point or paragraph.

How can I p#lan paragraphs for writing a personal narrative?

You have plenty of ideas, you kind of know what to say, and you know the basic structure of your writing. What do you do now? You need to work out what goes where. Look at all your ideas and identify logical sequences. Consider the following points when planning your paragraphs:

• Choose the first idea. Choose which idea the reader should know first. If all of the ideas seem equally relevant, choose the one you feel will provide the best “hook” for the reader. Choose the idea that will bring your reader into the story and guide them to what you’re thinking and answer. Choose one that will pull the reader in and orient them to your thinking and your answer. Don’t put the most dramatic ideas first. If the idea is the most dramatic, you should build-up to it.
• Choose a second idea. After choosing the first idea, decide which idea should go second. Which one would naturally come after? Is there an idea that belongs to or is an extension of that first one?
• Save the explanation for last. If you have an idea that needs to be explained, save it until the end so that the sentences leading up to that idea can explain your meaning more clearly.

Making the actual plan

Here is a simple outline for planning a paragraph.

• Make a list of the order in which you want the ideas to flow. This can be as simple as one word for each idea.
• Look at your list and ask yourself if the ideas flow naturally. If not, rearrange your thoughts until you have a plan you like.
• Double-check that there are enough ideas written down to support your topic sentence fully.
• If you want a more detailed plan, include smaller ideas next to each idea (subtopic or heading). You’ll use these smaller ideas to expand your thoughts. Also, include any examples you may want to use.

5. Writing A Personal Narrative—Revising the First Draft

Your first draft is done—congratulations! That’s a good beginning. Now it’s time to revise and edit. The difference between a mediocre individual narrative and a tremendous individual narrative often comes in the revising and editing stage. I can’t stress this phase of writing enough! I have had the sad experience of writing and printing a newsletter, brochure, or flyer where thorough editing was not done, and an error (such as a misspelling) slipped by. No matter how great the work, a simple error is like a splash of mud on clean windows. Editing is like hoeing the garden: it may not be pleasant at the time, but the result is wonderful. It’s also much cheaper to catch the error now than after you have printed and bound your work.

Toward the end of my father’s life, he began to reflect upon his life and write his memoirs. He wrote well over one thousand pages in longhand. He desired to have his writings published for all of his family to read. As I read over the lines and pages, I found many beautiful stories, examples, and lessons learned, but the writing was very rough. I was willing to work with my dad to edit and prepare the writings for publication, but it was no use; he was adamant that the first draft is the way it should be because it was his story. The 1000-plus handwritten pages are now filed away and on my to-do list.

Plan on at least two edits for your narrative. In the first edit, concentrate on the organization and content. Is the story in the correct order? Did you include all the characters and events you intended? Is it clear to readers who these people are and why they do what they do? Flesh out the characters, descriptions, and dialogue (if you have included it).

In the second edit, work on grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and transitions to polish the story. Edit the story as many times as necessary to make it the best you can, but realize that it will never be perfect. You have to stop editing your work and finish it at some point. You may not achieve the “perfect” individual narrative—there will always be something to add and tweak—but you will have the story you want. Remember, you can always add additional volumes. Complete the individual narrative and share it.

After you’ve edited the manuscript several times, ask other people to read it. A professional editor can make a big difference; if you plan to publish for an audience more significant than your family, professional editing is essential.

Who does the editing?

Editing is a team exercise. You will probably do most of the writing and editing and plan on at least two other people to review and assist with the editing. If you are not interested in or don’t have the skills for editing, then definitely enlist the help of others. Editors can also be for hire.

Consider using Grammarly

One of the tools I use to help me in editing is an online tool called Grammarly. Grammarly’s writing app makes sure everything you type is correct and precise and easy to read. Grammarly’s algorithms flag potential issues in the text and make context-specific suggestions to help with grammar, spelling and usage, wordiness, style, punctuation, and even plagiarism. Our software explains the reasoning behind each suggestion, so you can make an informed decision about whether and how to correct an issue. Grammarly is also easy to use. There is a free version and a professional version. I use the professional version and love it.

Three types of edits

During the revision and editing process, you will engage in the following three types of editing:

• Restructuring or reorganizing—this involves reflecting on what has been written and making significant improvements in the way parts fit together.
• Acquiring new information—adding photos, maps, exhibits, or further research on topics to understand better topics discussed or eluded.
• Sharpening—adding clarity by going over what is written and smoothing it out.

The Revision Stages Requires Restructuring and Reorganizing

Restructuring and reorganizing is the essential part of the revision stage. It requires that you step back and look at your writing with a fresh eye, as if you were a person fifty years from now, reading your narrative for the first time. The following are a few ideas that will help you in the editing and revising process.

Read your narrative aloud and make notes

One of the hardest things you will do as a writer is seeing your work from an outsider’s perspective. “Being too close to the forest to see the trees” is a good idiom to describe what is happening. When I read my writing, I have misspellings and usage errors that I simply gloss over or don’t see. When my wife edits my work, I’m surprised that I missed the errors she finds. I overlook many errors because I remember what I meant to say and don’t necessarily look at what I wrote. Three techniques will help you to focus on the words you have written.

Read your writings aloud at every stage of revision

Read what you have written aloud so you can hear the words. When I read what I have written aloud, I force myself to focus on what I am reading and the flow of my sentence structure. I will often catch grammatical errors or flawed writing styles when I read it aloud. When you first begin your revision, read through the whole draft of a section—start to finish—before revising the parts.

Print out a draft of your narrative before you start editing

If you wrote your first draft on the computer, print it out before editing on the screen. By printing out what you wrote, it is much easier, for example, to evaluate the lengths of paragraphs and overall flow. You can write directly on the draft, make notes, and list changes that need to be made. You can circle sentences and draw a line to where they might fit better. With a printed copy, you can physically note which passages sound weak, need more evidence, or could benefit from more examples.

Read your essay aloud with a pencil or pen in hand

As you read aloud, make notes about what you think might need to be changed. When you read the draft the first time, make notes in the margins. If you see spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, simply circle them so you can come back to them when you start your revision and editing.

Look at your writing through a reader’s eyes

When I first started writing, I became very defensive when someone edited or commented about the writing. I took it very personally. That “filter” was keeping me from seeing how others were receiving my writing. The editing and suggestions others made were minor, but they made a difference in how the writing would be received. Even if I disagreed with the recommendation, it gave me a chance to rewrite a sentence or paragraph and make it much more straightforward. Thus, when you read your writing, you must see the writing through the reader’s eyes. The following are a few techniques to consider:

Read as if you had no interest in the personal narrative

Read your writing from the perspective of someone who has no interest in what you wrote. Writing the personal narrative is something you care about. Your first draft is essentially writing to yourself. It’s easy to skip essential facts simply because you already know them. When you read your writings from the point of view of someone who has no interest in the subject, you start asking questions or making comments—”Where’s the proof?” “That’s a lame statement.” “Why is that important?” “What was the date?” “What was it like to live in the city at that time?” You can more easily see any omissions, and this process gives you a direction of what to do to strengthen your writing.

Read your writing from the perspective of a doubter

Our personal narratives are filled with experiences that are personal, spiritual, and sensitive. When you read your writing from the perspective of a doubter, you find areas where you can add more proof and expand on details. If you wrote something negative about someone, when you read as a doubter, you take on the opinion of defending the person who was not shown in the greatest light. I have found myself “toning down” or simply leaving out my own opinion in some instances and instead just presenting the facts.

Have someone who will give you honest feedback read your writing s

The two techniques above are based on you pretending to be the audience. This technique focuses on giving your writing to someone else and having them give you honest feedback. The first level of feedback that is most important is their reaction to your writings. Were they bored? Intrigued? What did they like the most and why? What do they wish you would have expanded on or simply left out? When you ask people for their genuine, honest feedback, do so to understand that you will take their feedback seriously. You may disagree with what will be said, but you will listen, not be offended, and view it as an opportunity to write a grand individual narrative that generations will cherish.

6. Structure for Writing a Personal Narrative

Your first draft was an exercise of getting your thoughts on paper. One of the first tasks you will address when reviewing your writing is to look closely at the body of the personal narrative and decide if the reader will see and follow the flow. An excellent narrative is not simply a collection of good paragraphs; it doesn’t start and stop at random—it moves in one direction. Good structure comes about through restructuring—moving, deleting, and adding sentences, paragraphs, or even whole sections. When you focus on the structure of your writing, you are not too concerned about transitions before and after the paragraph or even about detail in spelling and grammar because you’re not sure if that word, phrasing, sentence, or paragraph will even be in the final draft.

Reorganize and rewrite personal narratives from the top down

Look at the overall organization of your ideas first, and then work your way down to the details. If your paragraphs need to be moved around, settle on the order, you are going to put them in before you rewrite them. If you need to add new material, decide where it will go before writing it. Do not waste your time revising and inserting sentences until you know where every paragraph for a section of your narrative belongs. It is easier to start revising by inserting a sentence where you need one and correcting errors in your paragraphs.

Look at how the main parts of the body are connected

Whether you developed an outline or simply started writing, look at your writing to see how the information flows. One way to analyze the flow of your writing is to write down the topic sentence and see how the information flows and holds together from one topic to the next. The main task of this exercise is to see if your paragraphs are in good order. Does one paragraph lead to the next, or do you seem to be jumping around? Are you missing material? Are questions left unanswered?

Look at the way your paragraphs begin and end

Once you have the overall flow of your writing figured out, then examine your paragraph transitions. Does one paragraph lead to another? Are you answering the questions that were discussed in the previous paragraph or providing needed information? Or are you just changing subjects at random? Look for accidental or unintended breaks in the flow that are distracting and confusing for the reader.

Look for gaps

Look for those places where your thoughts seem to jump from one point to another without linking information. As a researcher, I find that I left gaps in writing when I chose not to explain or expand an idea that I already understood and knew the background information for. I have to remember that my reader doesn’t know the detail behind the story and that I need to include the information to have the same understanding that I have gained.

7. Support Your Claims in A Personal Narrative

When writing a personal narrative, most individuals will take your word on what you write concerning experiences and stories or about instances that are “common knowledge.” If your narrative is engaging, you should tell the reader something they don’t already know. When you write about other people, you will need a backup—beyond your word—to help develop and support what is being said. This type of backup would include newspaper articles, photos, certificates, letters, and history books. Evidence is information that tells how you know about the claim you have made. It would help if you took this very literally. It is often hard to tell the difference at first between telling readers what you know and telling them how you know it. A compelling narrative is credible by the answers you give, both about what you know and your sources for that knowledge.

Discover what claims in your personal narrative need supporting evidence

It is fair to assume that readers will accept claims about your own experiences—assuming they sound reasonable—without further evidence. If you make a claim that is not common knowledge and is not from your own experience, it requires that you add supporting information. As a researcher, keep in mind that not everyone knows everything you know.

Tell your readers how you know the claim is valid

Your narrative is devoted to answering the question, “How do you know?” When revising your personal narrative, take that question very literally. It would help if you let your reader know why you believe a claim is valid. This can be done by letting them know what you saw, read, or heard. If you believe that a claim you are making is valid, let your readers know what you saw, read, or heard that convinced you it was true. Sometimes you are going to have to do further research to confirm what you believe to be true. The following are a few examples of ways I have told readers how I know something to be true:

•  The experience is based on personal experience. Tell your experience in a way that your readers will understand how you learned what you know. When I wrote about my mother’s physical abuse during her marriage to my father, I described what I observed. If I were to make the statement that my father abused my mother, there would be no reason for the reader to accept my statement or conclusion.
• The experience you relate is not your own direct experience. When you write a personal narrative, many of the experiences you relate will be those shared by others in oral or written format. Simply tell the reader how you found out about the experience and how it illustrates your point and how you found out about it.
• The experience and claims you are making are about a larger group of people or a famil y. If you are making claims about a group of people, it is essential to provide more than one experience to support the point you are trying to make. For example, if I were to claim that my Schreiber ancestry came from a rich history of raising cattle, I would then show examples of how members of the Schreiber ancestry raised cattle from several generations, gather proof of brands, articles from newspapers, photographs of the family with cattle, and so forth.

Explain your sources and cite them where necessary

To tell us how you know something, you need to tell us where the information came from. If you observed the case you are telling us about, you need to tell us that you observed it, including when and where. If you read about an experience, tell us where you read about it. If you accept the testimony of another person, you need to tell us who the person is and why or how she has the information you are providing.

Remember, the question your readers will always be asking is whether what they are reading is accurate. Your narrative will be a compilation of your personal experiences and those of others. You are always answering the question, “How do you know?” When you tell the experiences and stories of others, you are answering the question, “How do they know?” If you care about the truth you are writing about; readers need to have some way to check the reliability of your sources.

Use examples

The easiest—and usually the best—way to keep your readers interested in your writing is to use examples. All other things being equal, examples are more entertaining and involving than generalizations. In almost every case, what readers remember best from an individual narrative is an example, usually a detailed and fully developed one. In such an example, we see and hear something that happened; it shows us people (or animals or machines) acting as we see them act all the time. When I read a detailed example story, it’s like being there. It relates to a personal experience that I haven’t had but that I might have had if I had been in the right place at the right time.

Dates and places don’t have to be dull

You can increase the interest in dates and places by adding a short description. Rather than saying, “Grandpa Jones had an eighty-acre farm,” you could say, ” When he was just 25 years old, Grandpa Jones bought an eighty-acre farm located four miles from town, next to the Spanish Fork River.” Dates can tell stories, but few readers will stop to notice when they are used without the description. When you have an important day you want to draw attention to, add definition. For example: “At the age of 32, his wife died from a black widow bite, leaving him four small children under the age of 7,” or “At the age of 17, just three months shy of his eighteenth birthday, he joined the Navy as a radioman at the beginning of WWII.” These phrases are much more interesting than “His wife died in 1933” or “He joined the Navy in 1942.”

8. Include Artifacts, Photos, and Images

As you write, edit, and prepare your narrative for publication, you will continually refer to or want to include images in your writing. The following is an overview of the types of artifacts, photos, and images you will want to consider in helping to write and tell the individual narrative.

How do I used photos and scanned images for my personal narrative?

As part of preparing your writing for publication and distribution, adding photos and scanned images is a critical consideration. What images will you choose to help tell the story? In addition to photos of people, including photos of significant buildings or other locations, including homesteads, churches, family cemeteries, or places of business. Images of certificates (such as birth, marriage, and death certificates), letters, and other personal documents will add significant value in telling the individual narrative.

I have found that the most challenging part of using images is choosing which one to use. It is a common desire to use as many images as possible, but you should choose the best images to help you tell the story. If you are talking about a family, try to find a photo of the family rather than individual photos of each person. Consider the following list of suggestions when choosing images for your narrative:

• With your digital archive or paper archive, you created such as the one I introduced in the article, “Easy 7 Step Color-coded File Organizing System for Writing Narratives,” in front of you. Review each folder about your written story. I have organized and sorted all my images into electronic folders that match the physical paper organization I have created.
• Place a sticky note on each photo that fits the text of the personal narrative you have written. Mark on the sticky note the section title and paragraph you believe the image would be suitable for.
• Review each item you have tagged with a sticky note and ask the following questions: • Would I find that valuable item or interesting if it were in someone else’s narrative? • Would it be as effective to describe the item rather than include it in the book? • Is the item representative of the period in which it will be included?

Note 1: If the answer to any of the above questions is “no,” remove the sticky note and place the item back into the narrative archive. Only those items with a sticky note will be considered for use in the final, personal narrative.

Note 2: If you are using photos of persons who are still living, it is essential to gain their permission for use.

Note 3: At no time is it permitted to include vital record certificates (birth, marriage) or any related types of records of living persons.

• Choose the best quality and most typical images to use in the narrative. Often you won’t have the opportunity to choose the photo because it’s the only one you have, but if you do have a chance, consider the following when choosing photos:

• Get Close. Choose photos that get close. Photos, where the subjects fill the frame with only the most basic image, are just better.

• Are Not Centered. Choose photos that do not have your subject right in the center of the photo. Photographs are uninteresting and static when centered, so having an un-centered photo lends more interest to the subject.

• Aren’t rushed . Choose from photos where you have a series to choose from. You can choose where the photo will be on the page and then look for the one that best fits the space and is composed well.

• Explore all angles. Choose photos that give you a change in perspective (such as a photo shot up from an angle or down from a higher angle). The photos help eliminate distracting backgrounds, telephone poles, or other obstacles that would otherwise negatively affect your photo.

• Focus on the eyes . If possible, choose photos that have the subject looking directly at the camera. There is nothing more inviting than looking into the eyes of our friends and loved ones.

• Use the richness of the sunrise and sunset. Some of the best photos are taken during the first and last hour of sunlight each day. During these times, the light is warm and soft, lending a beautiful quality to the photograph. Choose photos that are taken during these hours.

• Shoot photos on overcast days . Photos taken on overcast days are great to use because you don’t have harsh shadows, and the colors are overall better. • Don’t use direct flash . Choose photos taken without flash. Direct camera flash often causes flat lighting and red-eye.

• Use window light . Choose photos that take advantage of soft, natural light.

• Don’t have the midday look. Midday photos are among the worst photos because the sun is bright, which creates harsh shadows on faces and objects, squinting eyes, less appealing skin tones, and overall muted colors.

• Stay away from the scrapbook look. This is where you trim images and documents with special cutting scissors, add stickers, and write on the photo or any related activities. While it might look cute, it simply destroys the artifact and is not seen as providing any real value to what you are trying to display. Instead of scrapbooking your artifacts, spend your time writing a good and descriptive caption.
• When you have more than one photo for a specific section, and you can’t decide which one to use, ask others for their opinions about your final selections.

Can I use maps, documents, letters, and other artifacts in my narrative?

In addition to photographs, you can effectively use a wide variety of artifacts to help expand and bring meaning to your writings. For example, you can do the following in your personal narrative:

• Maps. Use maps to show current boundaries for counties, states, or other areas and the boundaries that existed when your family lived there. Use a map to show the migration path of your ancestors. Use different styles of lines and a legend to show historical and current boundaries and routes of migration. When using photocopies of actual historic family documents, also include a typed transcription.
• Grid Format. The use of documents and maps usually fits into the same grid format (explained below) for your photographs.
• Drawing and handwritten documents. In addition to historical documents, you may find it valuable to include drawings or handwritten stories from youth, as well as newspaper clippings or notations about current activities of living family members.
• Blank pages. Add a few blank or lined pages for future family members to make additional notes as the family grows.
• Scanned signatures . Scanned signatures (taken from wills, letters, and so forth) placed next to photographs can be an excellent addition.
• Note: Any works published more than seventy-five years ago are no longer covered by copyright so that you can use the pictures, but you should give credit. Be aware of copyright issues when using maps, illustrations, and other materials that are not your own.

What image layout should I use for my personal narrative?

As you begin to combine your writings with images, the following lessons that I have learned will help improve the layout and readability of your narrative:

• Develop a layout grid for your narrative. A layout grid denotes where you will put images and text on the pages to help maintain visual consistency throughout the book. Where possible, place photos near the text (narrative or charts) describing the individuals in the picture. Accompany narratives with photos of the key people in that story.
• Group photos from the same branch of the family tree on the same page or group of pages.
• Create a photographic timeline, such as a series of group shots from family reunions taken over successive years. For example, pair a wedding photo of a couple with a photo from their fiftieth anniversary.
• Enhance an otherwise dull chart with a headshot of the “head” of each primary branch of the family.
• Instead of an initial drop-cap (a large, two- or three-line tall capital letter at the beginning of a chapter), place a photo at the start of a narrative rather than placing it “tombstone” style over the top story.

How do I prepare photos and images for my personal narrative?

You will most likely be using digital images in the final preparation of your personal narrative. Take the time to enhance your photographs using editing software. The following are a few thoughts about photo editing. I encourage you to seek more detailed how-to advice for your specific needs.

Remember. Your original photos are your negatives

Never make changes to these—always work with a copy of the photo. When you load a photo into your image manipulation program, always do a “save as” to make a copy of the photo, and then work with that copy. If you make a mistake, you can always go back to the original and try again.

What to do with photo-editing software

The most common photo-editing tasks you will perform include the following:

• Reassemble large documents that have been photographed in sections.
• Correct the effects of poor lighting conditions or remove shadows from your photos.
• Compensate for distortion of the document photo caused by a poor shooting angle or curled pages.
• Enhance the quality of document photos suffering from low contrast or hard-to-read text.

An example of editing a document

Below I’ve outlined the steps I go through in editing an image with poor lighting. This is a simple process that has worked well for me. (I use Adobe Photoshop or Elements.)

• Import image.
• Create a duplicate image.
•  Rotate image, if necessary.
• Use a cropping tool to trim the image.
• Use an auto level, auto color, and auto contrast. Use the manual versions of these tools if needed.
• Save as a new file with a different name.

9. Other Elements to Include in Your Personal Narrative

Where you are writing your personal narrative, there are no limits to what you can include. For example, you can add

Ancestry or family tree charts

Ancestry charts show family relationships. Careful consideration should be used when deciding to include them in your narrative because they can take up too much space, or their format might not fit the book’s layout. Most individuals will start with a common ancestor, show all descendants, or start with a current-generation and show linkage to the common ancestor. Charts do not have to be extensive. A two- to the five-generation chart can be an excellent addition. There is no right or wrong way to include ancestry charts, as long as they fit the format of your book. As a rule of thumb, use standard, commonly accepted genealogy formats. While genealogy publishing software may automatically format charts and other family data suitably, when formatting data from scratch, consider these tips:

• When listing generations and descendants, it’s a good idea to indent bullets and numbering because it makes the information more readable.
• Use the same formatting throughout the book when listing dates such as birth, marriage, and death.
• When continuing information to another page, end on one individual and start the next page with a new individual.
• Be consistent with the way you connect family lines with boxes and lines.

Chronology sheets

These sheets allow you to detail, in date order, the schools you attended, the jobs you have had, homes you’ve lived in, and so forth, as well as any other details you may wish to include. Remembering exact dates can be difficult, so indicating the year is usually sufficient.

Dedication. You may have decided before you start writing your narrative to who you want to dedicate your work. I would advise that you wait until you have completed it until you decide. Working on your narrative will stir up many old memories, feelings, and emotions, and you may change your mind about your dedication by the time you are finished.

Documentation

The first rule of genealogy is to document your resources. Should you use documentation in your narrative? Many prefer not to use footnotes or endnotes because they find them distracting. However, I believe that you should include documentation in your narrative.

You include documentation because it provides the reader with important information about your source and credibility in your writings. If readers have conflicting information, it becomes easy for them to compare their notes with yours and correct their data. When you talk about families and what they did or did not do, having the source of information makes the truth easier to understand. When you expand your research about separate topics, you give readers a place to go for further reading, such as a book, website, or article. Documentation will save you a lot of argument and time.

Once you have completed writing your narrative, take some time to reflect on the completed project. Write down your thoughts and feelings about the experience in an epilogue.

A preface is a place for you to put a few of your thoughts before you start your narrative, such as why are you writing your autobiography, what you hope to achieve by writing it, what you hope others will get out of it, any worries, fears or concerns about reliving the past, and so forth.

The index is an essential addition to your narrative. An index provides the listing of where to find mentions of topics, people, and images. If you are using a genealogy program to assist with the production of your book, you can also do indexing or use your word processing program to develop and edit it. Note: It’s a good idea to index a woman under her maiden as well as married name.

Table of contents

Next to the index, the table of contents is a necessary element of your writing. The table of contents helps others understand how the writings are organized and provides a map of your work. Use the table of contents to show general sections, such as chapters and subheadings.

Vital statistics

A listing of your vital statistics—such as your name, address, and age—is the information needed to identify the work as your own and serves as a point of reference later on. Anyone who reads your narrative will also know who the writer is.

10. How to Organize the Sections of Your Personal Narrative

The following is an example of organizing your narrative into chapters and sections for a cohesive presentation.

This is the first page after the cover, and it contains the title (and sub-title) in as few words as possible. It may also include the edition number if there is more than one edition. The title page is the place to list your name and the names of other authors and editors, as well as the place and date of publication. Copyright statement. The copyright statement is usually on the back of the title page. It includes information about the publication, such as the publishing date and who to contact for more information.

Example: Copyright 2021 by Author B. Schreiber. All rights reserved.

This is a list of chapters and sections with accompanying page numbers. It provides an outline and guides for readers to find sections that are of most interest to them.

The dedication contains the person or people to whom you are dedicating the personal narrative and why. It is usually written on the page after the copyright page.

List of illustrations

This contains the name and page number of each picture, map, or illustration in the individual narrative.

A foreword is a statement about the personal narrative written by someone other than you or the editor.

This statement, written by you, describes why you wrote the personal narrative, provides an overview of the personal narrative’s scope, content, and organization; and outlines the research methods you used. It also provides an address for readers who wish to contact you.

Acknowledgments

An acknowledgments page is a place to show gratitude to people or institutions who helped you research, compile, edit, or otherwise put together your narrative.

List of abbreviations

This reference contains the abbreviations you have used in your personal or family narrative and their meanings.

Introduction

An introduction contains background or historical information that may be needed to understand the personal or family narrative.

List of contributors

This lists the names of people who helped write the personal or family narrative.

A chronology provides dates and descriptions of important events in a personal or family narrative. It gives readers an overview of the events that shaped the person’s life and provides a quick reference to critical events. Including a chronology is handy if your history is not arranged chronologically.

The main text of your narrative is usually divided into several sections or chapters and can also be divided according to the period. You can use divider pages to separate the chapters. The text may contain footnotes, endnotes, and so forth, as well as illustrations, photographs, maps, or copies of records and certificates.

Appendix or appendices

An appendix contains information that is not essential to the main body of the text but may be helpful to readers who want more specific information about a topic. An appendix can also list the sources used in writing your history.

Family group sheets, pedigree charts, and similar items Bibliography. A bibliography lists the sources you used in compiling your narrative.

This list of individuals, place names, and subjects mentioned in your history, with page numbers of where the topic is mentioned.

11. Publishing Your Personal Narrative

When writing your personal narrative, there are many options of how to publish the narrative. However, before you start talking about publishing, you need to ask yourself a few questions, such as the following:

How good is my material?

• How thorough has your research been?
• Are you satisfied with the accuracy of the information you have acquired, and have you documented your sources?
• If your research contains hypotheses or conclusions that are based only on conjecture, are you willing to state them as such? This will help other researchers put your work in context and, hopefully, encourage additional research.
• If there are gaps or questionable data, you should probably conduct additional research to make your publication the best it can be.

Does the information present a cohesive picture of the family?

• Are there significant chronological gaps in your research, missing individuals, or missing important dates?
• Do the family stories relating to historical events fit with documented historical facts? Can you prove them?

Are you a good writer?

• You may want to enlist the writing or editorial assistance of someone good with words, sentence construction, punctuation, and writing engaging text.

Are you sure you want to share your research with others?

• Suppose you plan to publish material on the Internet (see below). Are you ready to extend your research range and invite other researchers and family members to contribute more material or challenge your publishing?
• You are always sure to receive feedback in some form or another. If you receive corrections to your data or additional data, are you prepared to publish a revised edition of your work?

All of these issues influence your decision about when to publish. As you proceed with the desire to publish, you will have multiple options for publication, including the following formats:

Individuals will sometimes use a blog to publish their narratives or the narratives of their families. The format is much like that of an online journal. The process of posting to a blog is relatively simple. It becomes an easy and inexpensive way of sharing your personal narrative. A typical blog includes the following elements:

• Short, informational entries—generally arranged in reverse chronological order
• A time or date for each post
• Links to other blogs or websites for additional content
• Archives of all previously posted content, sometimes arranged into categories

If you decide to use a blog to publish your personal or family narrative, focus on telling stories about individuals. You can include photographs, video, audio, and scanned images such as a newspaper article or letter. You can organize your posts into individual or family groupings. Include your documentation where appropriate. If you are in the process of researching a family line, you can tell the stories as you discover them.

Family newsletter

Family newsletters usually focus on happenings of the family that is usually spread far and wide. Many family newsletters also become a medium to share family narratives and include documents, stories, photos, and newly discovered facts with all interested researchers. Newsletters are usually published two to four times a year by printing, photocopying, or electronically posting.

Family narrative thumb-drive, CD or DVD

A family narrative thumb-drive, CD or DVD can hold large amounts of data in a small space. It can include photos, sounds, scanned document images, and even video—something a printed personal or family narrative can’t do. And since they are compact and relatively inexpensive, you can easily share them with other personal or family narrative researchers at family reunions, genealogical conferences, or through the mail. One of the biggest challenges in creating a family narrative thumb-drive, CD or DVD is to decide what information you’d like to present and how to organize the information. Suppose you’ve spent years studying the genealogy of a particular family or surname. In that case, you probably want to include the results of that research in the form of lineage-linked family trees or register reports. You may also want to include a written family narrative or photographs of your ancestors, their houses, headstones, and so on. Or perhaps you have video or sound recordings of ancestors or family members you would like to showcase.

What are my options for printing and publishing my personal narrative?

Of all the options, printing and publishing is usually the first option you consider when sharing your research and personal narrative. Self-publishing your personal narrative is a relatively simple process with the available technologies. Options range from a simple printout of a word-processing document to a book layout in a desktop publishing program. If you chose to do a book layout, you can then print your book at a quick-copy, bind it with a spiral ring, or print at an offset press and have it professionally bound. You can print a few copies and distribute them to a few families or publish and sell many copies to the public.

Google search

I would encourage you to do a Google search on “How to self-publish a person narrative or history.”

The following are a few lessons learned by others about publishing their narratives with publishers.

Quick copy versus book publisher

If you plan to print under two hundred copies, you are probably better off going to a quick-copy, although specialty publishers take on “short-run” projects. Most commercial publishers prefer a print “run” of more than five hundred books. Printed books are usually well designed and of good quality.

If you’re publishing a few copies of the book for your family only, you can lay the book out in a word processor and have it printed at a local printer or even print the pages on your home printer and insert them in loose-leaf binders.

If you’re publishing for a wider audience, you’ll need to hire professionals for the interior and cover design and printing. You can contract with individual vendors for the various services you need or hire someone to handle everything. Be wary of publishing companies that charge you hefty fees to publish your narrative and then purchase the book copies. Check the credentials and references of professionals you use and interview them to ensure you’re comfortable working with them.

Talk to publishers before you start. Start talking to publishers when you start writing a personal narrative. They will help walk you through design and formatting options that will affect what you write and format.

Review other personal narratives to gain ideas

Take the time before you start writing your book to browse through other personal or family narrative books to see how others have done it. Photocopy pages from the book you like so you have them as a reference when planning your book. Factors to consider include the paper type and quality, print size and style, number of photos, and binding. A little extra time and money can go a long way toward making your book as attractive as possible—and keep it within your budget parameters.

Compare costs. Call a few potential publishers and printers to compare costs and quality of service and find out their requirements for publishing a personal narrative. To obtain an estimate for a whole life story, plan for a book of two hundred pages, including images, with enough copies to distribute to your parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren (and a few extras). If you want to be more exact, provide the publisher exactly how many pages are in your manuscript. It is always a good idea to take your finished manuscript with you, including the mockup of picture pages, introductory pages, and appendixes. If you want to spend more, you can have your narrative printed by an offset publisher. The quality will be better, but the high additional cost may not justify the additional quality.

How to fund publishing

It is unnecessary to spend a lot of money completing a personal narrative, but it should look good and read well if you are going to do it. It’s not uncommon for individuals writing family narratives to have the total project funded by family members, provided you are doing the work.

Ask for samples

Ask your publisher to see samples of the types of binding they offer. Most publishers will show you a variety of bindings. Having your narrative hardbound with a sewn binding is not a requirement; however, it will last longer than other types of binding. Your goal is to publish and distribute your narrative, regardless of how it is bound.

Work with the publisher

If available, have your publisher archive your narrative for you. Many publishers will offer a one-time storage fee and keep it for you in digital form, which you may use later to make additional copies.

Use electronic files

Use a publisher that prints copies from a file you’ve saved to on your computer. Each copy will then be as good as the original. Contact your publisher to find out what file format they prefer. Most publishers will accept files in recent versions of Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, and other widely used word processing programs. Extra care should be taken to ensure that the end product is acceptable and correct.

Paper makes a difference

20 lb. paper is acceptable (but too thin to print on both sides of the page), but 24 lb. is better and 60 lb. is best. Double-sided printing is preferable. The standard paper will discolor and become brittle within fifty years, so always have your narrative printed on acid-free paper.

Black-and-white photos are bes t

All photographs and images should be copied into black and white images. Black and white images will preserve much longer than color images, and printing black and white images is much cheaper than printing full-color photos.

Layout considerations and options

There will be many details to remember when defining how your narrative will appear on the page. For example, you will need to think about the book’s size. The standard paper size is 8.5 by 11 inches and will be the most cost-effective to duplicate. Smaller page sizes may be more attractive but will require more pages and will be more expensive as the pages will have to be cut to smaller. Other layout considerations include the following:

•  Stay away from trying to use a fancy-type face. Use fonts like Helvetica, Times New Roman, Arial, or members of serif text families. These fonts are easy to read.
• It’s always a good idea to use a large face such as 10 to 12 point types with average margins for one or two-column formats.
• When you align your text, you can justify your text (aligning your text on the left side of the page with a ragged right) or justify the text with a flush left and right.
• There are many different types of binding available for your narrative. Search the one that best fits your budget and at the same time fulfills the purpose you have in mind for the book.
• Remember, you must make the side you will bind to be V4″ more significant than the outside edge when you are laying out the page. For example, your binding edge will need your binding edge if your outside edge is V2″ 314″ wide.
• Take great care in writing the captions in your book. For example, try to the best of your ability to include the name of every person in the photograph. When you have large groups of people and cannot identify everyone, give the photo’s date.

12. Sharing Your Personal Narrative

Throughout the writing of your personal narrative, keep your eyes focused on the completion and distribution. The following are a few ideas to consider:

Publish several extra books for future generations. Posterity should have easy access to your narrative.

• Donate copies to libraries or other institutions.
• Post it on the Internet.
• Donate a copy to your local library.
• Donate a copy to the Salt Lake Family History Library.
• Permit microfilm using the Family History Library’s “Permission to Duplicate” form.
• Send a letter of permission with your manuscript.
• Send an unbound copy as it’s easier to microfilm.
• Plan ahead for the publishing and marketing of your book.
• Be alert for contacts and opportunities for promotion as you research and write.

Keep good records of anyone who has been contacted or helped with the book. You will contact them as potential buyers or persons who will help publish and distribute the personal narrative book.

When I first started researching and writing a personal narrative—be it my own or about my mother, family, or others—I wanted to record the profound and thought-provoking experiences that could last for generations. Instead, I found the narrative of being about life and how choices determine our course and how our course provides us an opportunity to become the individuals we are and to create the legacy we leave with our ancestral lines. No matter how great or small, every story has value because life was lived, and every life is a gift. The story is about what we did with the gift.

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We love writing stories. The mission of Begin My Story is to help and inspire you to write the stories that matter to you. Every life is a story worth remembering. We believe the stories you write will make a difference and have the power to connect, inspire, challenge, and help us not forget.

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What Topics Should I Write About for My Family Essay?

Choosing the right topic is essential. Here are some suggestions:

Writing a Family Tree Dive into your roots! A family tree can be more than names and dates; it can narrate stories of ancestors, their challenges, achievements, and legacies. For instance, "When I looked into our family tree, I discovered that my great-grandfather was a sailor who traveled the world and had countless tales of adventures, some of which have become legendary bedtime stories in our family."

Describing My Family in My Essay Discuss each family member in detail. "My sister, with her fiery red hair and matching temper, is the exact opposite of my calm and analytical brother. Yet, when they come together, they create the most amazing music, with him on the piano and her singing."

Writing About a Personal Memory Share a poignant memory. "I remember the time when our cat, Whiskers, went missing. The entire family turned detectives overnight, searching for clues, putting up posters, and even setting up a 'cat trap' with her favorite treats. The adventure ended with Whiskers found sleeping peacefully in the neighbor's shed, unaware of the chaos she had caused."

Dos and Don’ts When Writing a Family Stories Essay

• Be authentic.
• Use vivid descriptions and dialogues.
• Respect privacy; ask permission if sharing personal details.
• Avoid making generalizations.
• Refrain from being overly negative or critical.
• Don't plagiarize; every family's story is unique.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is a good hook for an essay on my family? As Tolstoy once said, 'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Our family, though, has found its unique shade of happiness.
• What should I include in an essay about me and my family? Descriptions of family members, memories, traditions, challenges, and lessons.
• How should I start an essay all about my family? Every time I think of the word 'home,' an image of our old cottage, Sunday dinners, and loud family debates comes to mind.
• How long should my essay about my family be? Length depends on the requirement; academic essays typically range from 500-1000 words, while personal essays can vary.
• How do I make my family essay engaging? Incorporate stories, memories, and emotions.
• Is it okay to discuss family challenges in my essay? Yes, but be sensitive and respectful.
• Can I add humor to my family essay? Yes, as long as it's in good taste.

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20 Engaging Essays About Family You Can Easily Write

Discover 20 essays about family for your next essay writing project.

From defining the family to exploring problems within modern families, this personal topic lends itself well to essay writing. If you are preparing a personal essay or were assigned to write one on this topic, good news. You can easily draw on a wealth of sub-topics and themes about the family, as you develop your piece. But if you have trouble getting started, here are 20 ideas for essays about the family.

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers .

1. Why Siblings Should Be Your Best Friends

2. what is a family, 3. how family culture is established by a nuclear family, 4. the importance of family in child rearing, 5. how my family made me a better person, 6. why i love my family, 7. why my mom/dad/grandparent is my role model, 8. the effect of dysfunctional families on teenagers, 9. a sociological approach to defining family, 10. the influence of extended family on a child’s life experiences, 11. how popular culture portrays the happy family, 12. how my dysfunctional family defined my character, 13. how family has changed in american society, 14. is family changing or facing a state of decline, 15. the role family holds in everyday life, 16. comparing the family dynamics between two different cultures, 17. how my multi-cultural family gave me the best of both worlds, 18. unique challenges faced in single-parent families, 19. my most vivid family memory, 20. the challenges of being the youngest or oldest in the family.

A loving family is a beautiful gift, and with it often comes the gift of siblings. You could develop an essay on why siblings should be an individual’s best friends. When the relationship between them is loving and supportive, siblings are always around and able to help individuals through challenging life experiences.

This stands in stark contrast to the friends made in high school and even college. While some people will walk away with lifelong friends, life’s circumstances often pull friends apart. Family is forever, and people should work to develop those relationships. Looking for more? See these essays about brothers .

The dictionary defines a family as “a social group made up of parents and their children” or “a group of people who come from the same ancestor.” Yet this is a very narrow definition of family. Could you define it in another way? Are there people who you consider “family” who are not actually related to you by blood?

This essay idea gives you quite a bit of room for interpretation. Decide how you will define family, and then use the essay to support your choice. Then, discuss different ways family can look in society.

If you need some inspiration, check out our guide to the best parenting books .

The nuclear family is the most basic family structure: parents and their children. This family system is critical to developing a family culture and passing it down to the next generation. Do you find that you highly value having a family night on Fridays? It is likely because that is something your parents showed you in your own family when you were growing up.

Your essay can define family culture and show how family life helps establish that and pass it down to children. This family essay can discuss the nuclear family’s role in teaching children about cultural and religious values. Finally, the essay can establish why family culture and passing it along to children is so important.

For more help with this topic, read our guide explaining what is persuasive writing ?

Can children grow into reasonable and ethical grown-ups without a family? While it is possible, the reality is the most stable adults typically come from loving and supportive families. One of the primary roles of the family is the development and rearing of children.

The family is the child’s primary social group . Through the family, they develop socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. In some ways, the family is the first school that teaches them the most important principles of life for young children. In your essay, establish the fact that family is the foundation for strong adults because of its role in child-rearing and child development.

If you need to write a personal essay, you can look at your family’s role in making you who you are. Your family played a vital role in your upbringing, from teaching you your core values to supporting you as you developed into the adult you are today.

Remember that you don’t have to have a happy family to write this essay. Even if your family circumstances were challenging, you can find ways that your family of origin helped you improve yourself and become a better person.

This is another personal essay topic. On the surface, it seems easy, but if you are going to write a quality essay, you need to dig deep. What makes your family unique and special, and why do you love that?

Keep in mind that all families have quirks and even problems. Yet you love your family in spite of these and sometimes even because of them. Don’t be afraid to include these in your essay.

Think of your family and the leaders in it. Is there one that stands out for a particular reason? Have you modeled some of your own life on how that person lived theirs?

Whether you choose a parent or a grandparent or even an extended family member, look more closely at what makes that individual so important in your life. Then, in your essay, you can outline how you are trying to emulate what they did in their life to make you more successful in yours.

When families go through difficult times, the effect is not limited to those struggling the most. The whole family will suffer when parents are fighting or financial problems arise. Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to dysfunctional family dynamics. They may act out, experience depression, or feel pressured to lead the family when their parents are facing conflict.

This essay explores the effect of family problems on teenagers and their emotional or social development. Consider providing solutions that can help teens manage their challenging emotions even while dealing with the unique challenge of a dysfunctional family.

The definition of family is constantly evolving, but what does sociology say about it? This question could lead to an exciting and engaging essay as you dig into sociology to find your family definition. Based on most sociological definitions , a family is a group of related individuals connected by blood, marriage, or adoption. It may also mean people who live under the same roof.

Based on this definition, the word family has a distinct boundary. While close friends might be something you consider as family personally, sociologists will not define family in this way. Looking at the way sociologists, specifically, define family will give you quite a bit for your essay.

Much has been written about the nuclear family and its impact on the child’s development, but the whole family can have a role to play. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family members can contribute to the life experiences of a child, and you can turn this into an interesting essay topic.

Use your essay to explore what happens when the extended family lives close by and what happens when they do not. You can look at how much of an influence the extended family has on a child’s development, and what increases or decreases that influence.

What does the happy nuclear family look like in television shows and movies? Is it usually a mother, father, and child, or are same-sex couples shown regularly? Do single-parent households get equal representation, or not?

This topic could be a fascinating one to explore in your essay. Once you establish the facts, you can discuss if this portrayal reflects real life or not. Finally, you can talk about whether or not the cultural portrayal of the family represents the type of family values the average family embraces.

Not everyone grows up in a happy, stable family, but sometimes bad times can improve someone’s character and give them the drive to be better. If you grew up in a dysfunctional family, you could show how that helped define your character.

In this essay, work to make a positive spin on your difficult situation. This topic can work well for a personal essay for college entrance or employment purposes.

Is the definition of family changing in American society? Some would argue that it is. While the mother, father, and children style family is still common, many other families exist now.

For example, we have an increasing number of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren . Single-parent families are also on the rise, as are families with a single parent who was never married to the other parent to begin with. Families with same-sex parents are becoming more common as well. Take your essay and define this change and how the nuclear family may look in the future.

Another take on the idea of the changing family dynamic s discussing whether or not families are changing, or if the state of the family is in decline. This essay topic will require some research, but you can explore whether families are breaking down or if they are simply changing.

If you decide that the family is breaking down, you can explore the reasons for this breakdown and its impact on society.

From bringing in the income that the family members need to live on to giving direction for the growth and development of children, the family holds a significant role in everyday life. You can explore this role in your essay and talk about the different components of life that the family controls.

For people who grow up in a stable environment, the family provides emotional support and improves overall well-being. It is also the source for moral development, cultural development, and work ethic development. It also provides for the physical safety and needs of the children. All of these lend themselves well to an essay topic.

While the main definition of family is nearly universal, the nuances of family dynamics change significantly from one culture to the next. For example, some cultures are highly patriarchal in nature, while others focus on maternal leadership. Pick a very different culture from your own, and then compare and contrast them in your essay.

For this essay, make sure that you look at differences as well as similarities. Do not disparage either culture, either, but rather focus on their differences positively. This essay works well if you have contact or knowledge of both cultures so that it can be a great choice for someone growing up in a multi-cultural family.

This essay topic is a twist on the previous one. In addition to comparing and contrasting the family dynamic of the two cultures, you can look at how that directly impacted you. What did you gain from each of the two cultures that merged in your home?

The personal nature of this essay topic makes it easier to write, but be willing to do some research, too. Learn why your parents acted the way they did and how it tied into their cultures. Consider ways the cultures clashed and how your family worked through those problems.

Single-parent families can be loving and supportive families, and children can grow well in them, but they face some challenges. Your essay can expound on these challenges and help you show how they are overcome within the family dynamic.

As you develop this family essay, remember to shed some positive light on the tenacity of single parents. There are challenges in this family structure, but most single parents meet them head-on and grow happy, well-balanced children. Remember to discuss both single fathers and single mothers, as single-parent families have both.

You can use this personal essay topic when writing essays about the family. Think back to your childhood and your most vivid family memory. Maybe it is something positive, like an epic family vacation, or maybe it is something negative, like the time when your parents split up.

Write about how that family memory changed you as a child and even in your adult years. Discuss what you remember about it and what you know about it now, after the fact. Show how that memory helped develop you into who you are today.

Are you the family’s baby or the oldest child? What challenges did you face in this role? Discuss those as you develop your family essay topic.

Even if you were the middle child, you can use your observations of your family to discuss the challenges of the bookend children. Do you feel that the baby or the eldest has the easier path? Develop this into a well-thought-out essay.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Nicole Harms has been writing professionally since 2006. She specializes in education content and real estate writing but enjoys a wide gamut of topics. Her goal is to connect with the reader in an engaging, but informative way. Her work has been featured on USA Today, and she ghostwrites for many high-profile companies. As a former teacher, she is passionate about both research and grammar, giving her clients the quality they demand in today's online marketing world.

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620 Family Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Explore a wide variety of topics about family members, love, values, and more.

👨‍👩‍👦 Family Essay Structure

🏆 best family topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on family.

• 🎓 Simple & Easy Family Essay Titles

📌 Family Writing Prompts

• ⭐ Interesting Topics to Write about Family
• 🥇 Most Interesting Family Topics to Write about

❓ Essay Questions About Family

As a student, you are likely to get an assignment to write about the importance of relationships. That’s why you can be in need of a good friends and family topic. In this case, you’ve found the right page. Our experts have prepared a list of ideas related to the subject.

Writing a family essay is an easy way to boost your grade and explore the things that matter to you. However, to get a high grade on this assignment, it is essential to structure your paper well. Essays that are organized logically will help you to stand out from the crowd and earn your tutor’s appreciation. Here are some tips on structuring family essays:

1⃣ Narrow down the topic

If your professor didn’t provide a set of topics to choose from, you would need to decide on the focus of your essay. The concept of family is too general, and failing to narrow it down might cost you marks. Think about your interests and experience. Do you want to write about what family means to you? Or would you rather write an essay on family problems? Whatever your interests are, choose a subject that can be explored in-depth within the specified page limit.

2⃣ Check samples online

This is an excellent way to prepare for writing your essay because you can examine how other people structured their work. Luckily, there are many family essay examples and sample papers online that you could use. While reading those, note the key points and how they follow one another in a sequence. Consider how the structure of each paper can be improved to make it more coherent. Did the writer miss some points? Did they provide examples in support of each argument? Write out your notes to keep them in mind while working on your essay.

3⃣ Start by writing one to three titles at the top of the page

Family essay titles tend to be very generic, so you need to choose one that suits the intended content of the paper. Examine each title to see if it is precise and can catch the reader’s attention immediately. For example, if you would like to write about a family relationship, you could use a quote about the importance of family as a title.

4⃣ Create an outline based on your key points

There are typically three parts in an essay: introduction, main body, and conclusion. The first part should contain the most basic information about the topic, as well as your purpose or thesis statement. A family essay body is where you present the main ideas and arguments in a logical sequence. The conclusion should be the last part you write, so you don’t need to plan it along with the other two components. After writing the outline, go through each point again to see if they link together nicely. If not, see if you could move some points around to make them fall into a logical sequence.

5⃣ Add evidence to support each point

Once you’ve completed the outline, add more details to each section. You could use the evidence gathered as part of secondary research, as well as your thoughts and personal experience. For instance, if you have a section about what a happy family means, think whether you know any families that fit the description or explore statistics on happiness among married couples with children.

Following the tips above will help you to create a backbone for your paper, making writing a hundred times easier! If you need any more assistance with your essay, search our website for family essay topics, writing advice, and more!

• The Role of Family in the Process of Socialization Although each parent in a family has a role in the upbringing of a child, in many cases, the mother initiates the socialization process in a child.
• Importance of Family in Society The central family values include, for example, internal ones: the unity of culture and faith in the family, mutual understanding, love, and support between parents and children.
• Family as an Agent of Socialization Essay The family regardless of its nature and size is the fundamental factor in socialization. The family is a storehouse of warmth and compassion and stands in resistance to the aggressive world of trade.
• Importance of Family Communication Essay Furthermore, the only efficient way of passing family information from the elder generation to the younger generation is effective communication between the source of the information and the recipient of the information.
• Small Family and Big Family Differences and Similarities – Compare & Contrast Essay Small families Children in small families have all the chances and resources to cater for their education, up to the highest levels of education they deserve.
• Cybernetics and Social Construction in Family Therapy A family is a form of a system, and Cybernetics is the study of systems of all kinds. Also, the theorist noted that every patient is a therapist to another member of the family and […]
• Family and Its Structure Classification The main function of the father in this structure is to provide and cater to the family’s needs as well as provide protection of its members.
• Family Genogram Analysis Factors This essay presents a summary and analysis of my family’s genogram by assessing the interaction and the impact of environmental factors, genetics, and heredity on my family and me.
• Balancing work and family A balance of work and family can be attained and managed if both negative dimension of the conflict and positive dimension of the employee effort of balancing work and family are considered to facilitate a […]
• Comparison and Contrast: The Nuclear Family vs. the Traditional Family As it can be seen, although the nuclear family and the traditional family are very different from each other, there are many ways in which they also remain the same.
• Family Tree and Its Importance This is the basis upon which such variances of family tree as family medical tree have been suggested and used in the medical field for keeping medical information for specific families. Knowledge of this medical […]
• Family in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” by Hallstrom The story is narrated by Gilbert Grape, who is the second eldest son of the family. In the Grape family, a triangle is formed between Gilbert, his mother Bonnie, and Arnie.
• Dream Family Vacation and Its Benefits Vacation also benefits the family as a whole in that it makes it easier to understand one another as there is a close involvement hence allowing for the learning of what each person likes and […]
• Single-Parent Families The chief materials that are to be used in the proposed experiment are the measurement scale to evaluate changes in adolescents’ attitudes towards single-parent families and the source of information about single-parent households.
• What is the Family? The aim of the paper is to give a concise definition of family, and the context of family structures such as the traditional family; single parent family, blended family and cohabiting relationship families.
• Family Therapy: Ethical Dilemmas One of the ethical dilemmas in the case is that of deciding whether or not to disclose the information about Breen’s relationship with her boyfriend to her parents.
• Family Analysis in the “Stepmom” by Chris Columbus The aim of this essay is to describe the family relationships in one of the families portrayed by the media. I recommend watching this film to everyone who is interested in the theme of family […]
• A House Divided: Structural Therapy With a Black Family. Case Conceptualization The present paper focuses on the family of three, including the father of the family, Carl, the mother of the family, Rosalind, and their ten-year-old son.
• Bowen family system theory The Family Projection Process This is an extension of the previous concept and points to the fact that the family member who has a ‘problem’ is triangulated and works to stabilize a dyad in the […]
• Bali Island in Family Trip Experience The inhabitants of this island are warm and very receptive and it is no surprise that the island has been nicknamed ‘The Island of God in Paradise.’ This descriptive essay is going to capture the […]
• Defining Characteristics of a Healthy Family A healthy family is a family where its every member is happy and lives in harmony with its other members. The given family is considered an unhealthy family, as one of its members is unhappy […]
• A Family Supper The relationship between the author and the parents is strained because of the author’s decision to move to California, as explained in the story where the author states, “My relationship with my parents had become […]
• Balancing Studies, Work, and Family Life As result of the numerous responsibilities that may come with these three aspects of life, it is advisable for an individual to set small, realistic, and attainable targets, be it in their work, studies, or […]
• Statement for Marriage and Family Therapist Applicant My personal experience in marriage, long-term work with families within the framework of my occupational duties, and the desire to help people through life’s difficulties motivate me to become a Marriage and Family Therapist.
• Jamaican Family Cultural Practices The history of the Jamaicans in the United States began in 1619 when some blacks from Jamaica, as well as from the Caribbean islands migrated to the United States.
• Marriage and Family Challenges As a rule, one of the principal reasons for a difficult adaptation is the initially inflated requirements of one of the spouses or even both of them.
• Family Therapy Model and Application: Structural Family Therapy The applicability of the structural family therapy to the case is based on the assertion that a family comprises a system, which is a part of a social grouping.
• “Public and Private Families” by Andrew J. Cherlin One advantage of the observational method is its ability to form the basis for further scientific inquiry, but its biggest drawback is the interference of too many external factors in the observation.
• African American Family in the “Soul Food” Movie The family in the movie, called Joseph’s family, consists of Big Mama, the head of the family, who has three daughters: Terri, Bird and Maxine.
• Reflecting on “The Family Crucible” The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of selected passages in the book and the application of these passages in understanding family relationships and dynamics in the context of family therapy.
• Cybernetics and Parenting Styles in Family Therapy This concept will be very helpful in my future work since I will be able to notice negative behavior in children that is the result of the parenting style adopted by the parents.
• Wonder Movie: A Miracle of Family In addition, the mother always acts as the peacemaker: during the dinner on the first day of school, she is the one to start the conversation to comfort others.
• Cultural Differences Among Families in the “Hotel Rwanda” Film Arguably, the existence of cultural differences between families across the lifespan is the most significant problem affecting the family of Rusesabagina as he attempts to play the role of a corporate manager and a family […]
• Drug Abuse & Its Effects on Families Focusing on the family seems to be by far, the most known and effective way of finding a solution with regards to the “war on drugs” since it more promising to end the vicious cycle […]
• The Trip of a Lifetime for a Family of Four: Project Plan The project implies planning the trip of lifetime for a family of four during three weeks with a budget of $35,000.
• Structural Family Therapy A chance to work with children and their families proved the idea that family therapy had to be based on trust and loyalty to the ideas; and the role of a therapist should not be […]
• The Future of Families: Four Discoveries That Change Everything George describes the shift in the family decision-making process and how children have been involved in decision-making on issues affecting the entire family.
• Family Life Definition and Identification The lack of a modern and conventional definition of a family has been linked to dynamism of culture and the different form that the family has assumed.
• Social Factors in the Families Cherlin also says the three-status groups of people in the society comprise of college-educated, high school educated, and no high school-educated groups. The poverty limit is a measure of income that represents the product of […]
• The Family as the Basic Social Unit Furthermore, liberals, such as Archard, argue that the family is characterized by the roles and responsibilities that are evident in family privacy and the protection of intimacy.
• Various Issues in Modern Family The age of initial sexual encounter is getting lower; this has led to unupsurge of teenage pregnancies and abortions in the short term and terminal illnesses in the long term.
• Women: Their Careers and Family Lives Importantly, she pertains to the group of women who are not regarded as less productive as she is more than 28 and she does not have children.
• Representation of Family in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” According to Bandy, the selfish nature of the grandmother and her disregard to her family is evidenced when she seems to care the safety of the other family members.
• Collaborating With Families and Community Members Effective school administrators and principals collaborate with community members, families, and the business community to mobilize community resources in order to meet the diverse community needs and interests.
• Growing Up in a Broken Family: “Found Objects” by Jennifer Egan This clearly shows that the genesis of Sasha’s behavior is linked to her missing father. In the story, the leaving of Sasha’s father has made her to mistrust all the people she is dealing with.
• The African Family This article seeks to analyze the African family by assessing the life of Mpho ‘M’atsepo Nthunya as an African woman in the family context. The father who is the head of the family is in […]
• Family Versus Individual Therapy Whereas individual therapy lays focus on changing the individual only, family therapy considers the needs of the whole group and actually integrates the whole family in the recovery process of the affected individual. It is […]
• Family and Child Development Milestones Peter is the decision-maker and plays the role of the primary breadwinner. Cathy is the person who looks after the health of the children and family members.
• Non-Traditional Families and Child Behaviorism Affects The study revealed that men have a tendency to be more homo negative than women and the society’s negative attitude towards gay and lesbian parenting could be partly attributed to external forces prevalent in society […]
• My Belief About Family Relationships I have chosen to discuss my belief about family relationships instead and how my father and family play an important role in shaping that belief. That is my belief in life and I know that […]
• “Children of Heaven”: The Children’s Focus on Family Relation In spite of the fact that Ali and his sister Zahra live in poverty in the poor Tehran neighborhoods and their struggles are associated with impossibility to satisfy their basic needs, the film is not […]
• Family Categories Schema: Family Strengths Analysis Because family prosperity and family strengths are closely related, the specialists may use Family Categories Schema in order to identify and cultivate the advantages of the family.
• Kinship of Family In the above mentioned scenario it is certain that links that are based on blood are stronger and cannot be compared to links based on the marriage because the partners in marriage are united by […]
• The Huxtable Family from the Cosby Show His wife, Clair Huxtable, is the matriarch of the family and a lawyer. For her, the main challenge in the family is to balance being a wife, a mother, and a professional.
• Family’s Heritage of Liberian Family There is the Mela group which is compromised of the Kissi and Gola and they are considered the oldest in the region.
• Family Systems Theory and Psychosocial Assessment The focus is therefore on family members and not the individuals in a given family. In this case, therefore, the theory is used to study a particular system which is the family.
• Family Model: Stephanie Coontz’s “What We Really Miss About the 1950s” Needless to say, the values and beliefs of the US society changed immensely, though the main question still has to be answered ‘what the family model will be like in several decades?’ I think answering […]
• Jewish Family Cultural Perspective In the Jewish culture – both in the classical and the ancient time – the family formed and still is a basic unit of the society and whose role in the sustenance and development of […]
• Roles of Education & Family in Frankenstein In the story, the family serves as one of the major socializing agents in society. The role of love in the family is an additional theme that can be depicted in the story.
• Marital and Parental Subsystems in Family In a conventional family system, these members include the husband and wife, the siblings, and the relatives who make up the extended family.
• How Families Have Changed The children who find themselves in such a family set up most often en up with a very different view of how a family works when compared to a child who came from a nucleus […]
• Family Therapy: Bowenian and Narrative Approaches This is one of the issues that should be considered by a therapist. This is one of the aspects that can be distinguished.
• Marriage and Family Therapy Even though she is the one instigating therapy, she is suggesting that the therapist speaks to Leon and not her. This case, the problems is Marceline’s indecision and lack of set goals of what she […]
• “Oresteia” by Aeschylus and “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles: Family Tragedies In this way, Agamemnon presents imperfections in the family under consideration with the tragedy of this family rooting in the wife’s unfaithfulness to her husband and the father’s sacrificing his daughter in exchange for the […]
• Money or Family Values First? Which Way to Go As such, family values becomes the epicenter of shaping individual behavior and actions towards the attainment of a certain good, while money assumes the position of facilitating the attainment of a certain good such as […]
• Family Communication Overview This presentation aims to discuss the impact of family relations on the process of children’s and parents’ socialization and methods of improving family communication.I.
• Defining Extended Family as a Phenomenon It is the role of early teachers to be aware of who constitutes a child’s family and not to define the child’s family for them.
• Personal Interests vs. Family Needs Let me first write the definition of the purpose and course of my life.”I am totally committed to fulfill the needs of my family and ensure their happiness and security, even if I have to […]
• Bowen Family Systems Theory – Psychology In this context, the theory is relevant in demonstrating that the level of stress prevalent in the family due to alcoholism and irresponsible behavior of the family head is directly responsible for the development of […]
• Nuclear Family vs. Single Parenting Effects on Child The family is the main environment that contributes to the behavior of a person. The family environment in which these individuals are is the key contributor to the character and behavior of individuals.
• Social Issues of Families in Poverty With the tightened budget, parents of the families living in poverty struggle to make ends meet, and in the course of their struggles, they experience many stresses and depressions.
• How the Glass Menagerie Illustrates the Breakup of Family Structures Debusscher, in this respect states that, the mention of “a double life,” could be the mask that Tom Wingfield wears to meet the world, in particular the “world of his mother and that of the […]
• The Human Family Tree Development Thus, the investigation of the existing lines of descent in a human family tree allows scientists to determine the worth of connection dots and differences and similarities between the ancestors.
• “Family Supper” by Ishiguro: Eastern and Western Family Attitudes Cultural Differences The Japanese people are well known for their martial arts and the writer describes his father as “the proud of the pure samurai blood that ran in the family”.
• Family and Its Sociological Perspective First, it allows me to experience the sensation that I am not alone in the universe, as the individualities of my parents and siblings are inseparably fused with that of my own.
• Incomplete Families: “The Drover’s Wife,” “The Chosen Vessel,” and “Good Country People” The first one, Henry Lawson’s “The Drover’s Wife,” is set in the Australian bush, as is the second, “The Chosen Vessel” by Barbara Baynton; and the third story is set in the American South, Flannery […]
• Definition of the Family For me, a family can be simply defined as the people whom I come home to when I need to feel loved and wanted. Who is to say what the real definition of a family […]
• Family Legacies It should be noted that the primary metaphor which is used in Walker’s work is the old quilts, made by previous generations of the family.
• Family Assessment in Payne’s Film “The Descendants” The present work is devoted to the case study of the family that is depicted in the film The Descendants. The case is summarized with particular attention paid to the structure and beliefs and values […]
• The Family from a Sociological Approach The family is the simplest form of social interaction; it forms the base of a society. The case above of dominance and unconscious division of power is seen as social stratification in the family.

🎓 Simple Topics about Family

• The Couple and Family Map and Its Main Concepts Therefore, closeness and flexibility are important concepts in the map and can describe the relationship between Rick and Louann. Moreover, the family is described as flexible because they have a good balance of stability and […]
• The Concept of Strategic Family Therapy SFT approach rests upon the notion that families possess enduring power to change teenagers. The approach normally targets families with children possessing antisocial behaviors.
• Feminist Theory of Family Therapy The purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate the feminist theory based on its model, views on mental health, goals, and the role of the counselor in the process.
• The Modern Day Family It is the opinion of this paper that the changing nature of the present day social environment, in the form of work constraints and perceived social obligations, causes the problems that American society faces today.
• Structural and Experiential Family Therapists Differences A structural family therapist could view the problem of the child by understanding relationships within the family of the child. For example, a structural family therapist could focus on deciphering how the child interacts with […]
• Second Child Effects on the Family The interferences to personal schedules of parents, with the responsibility of taking care of children, affects personal concentration and productivity of the parent and may lead to cases of high stress that further complicate their […]
• The XYZ Family W, who doubles as the head of the family, is a local merchant and has a relatively small food kiosk within the Saddle Lake town.
• Changing Notion of Nuclear Family as Portrayed in Television Shows The Simpson displays frustrations and irritations in a family and how sometimes it suffers lack of money and other important effects and it portrays nuclear family which is a very important image of the family.
• The Role of Family in Political Socialization When children grow up they try to find out the political parties their parents prefer and investigate the issues that make them to be members of these parties.
• Marriage and Family: Life Experience When we got married, a man was perceived to be the head of the family, and in his absence the wife was expected to guide the family.
• Children of Heaven: Family Values and Norms While credit to the quality of the piece of work has been noted to embed the scriptural work and the high performance of the characters who interpreted the story, it has been argued that the […]
• Narrative Family Therapy: Adolescent Mental Health In the Video, the primary contributors are the couple and the narrative therapist. The narrative therapist tries first to comprehend the viewpoint of a patient on their lives and the dominant plot and changes that […]
• Caring for a Family Member Last but not least is the psychological toll that caregiving takes on individuals due to social isolation, lack of privacy, and sleep deprivation.
• Family System in “The Kids Are All Right” by Lisa Cholodenko Nic, who is an obstetrician, seems to be the father in the family because she caters to all the family needs, while Jules is the mother of the home.
• Psychodynamics Family Systems Model The maintenance of the sequence is because the new female generations adopt the roles of their coinciding gender. The level of aggression relates to the past experience of a person.
• Effects of Internet Addiction on Family Relationships Among Teenagers In the modern society, cyber bullying refers to the instances where the individual uses the internet to interfere with the rights and freedoms of others.
• Family Budget: How to Live With Annual Income 15300$ Having the information about the annual income of the family and the list of the obligatory costs, it is possible to calculate the expenses of the family, the cloths they can buy and the number […]
• How Marginalization Affects the Health Care of Women and Families with Children Three things an advanced practice nurse can do to lessen the societal effects on less fortunate women are to build a trusting relationship with the patients, refer the patients to local support services, and keep […]
• Changing Gender Roles in Families Over Time The division of labor and traditional gender roles in the family usually consists of men doing the work while women take care of the children, other relatives, and housekeeping.
• Modern Families: Intimate and Personal Relationships Since Queen’s family lived in the United States and my family resided in England, this paper presents an integrated comparison of household aspects in the two countries.
• Family-Cultural Assessment As part of the Friedman Family Assessment Model, the strengths and weaknesses of the family will be assessed, along with the developmental stages and risk factors.
• Celebrating Easter in the Family During the Covid-19 Pandemic Our family has a tradition associated with this holiday, which we practice from year to year – this is a family visit to the church.
• The Role of Family in Treating Juvenile Offenders Because of lack of communication, sometimes parents believe that their child is a victim of prejudice and has been wrongfully accused. This method is highly individualized and allows parents and community to help with the […]
• “Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family’s Triumph Over Autism” by Catherine Maurice The book was published in 1994, and it was a success as parents of autistic children were waiting for someone to prove that autism was not an incurable disorder.
• Important Values of Family, the Financial Question The family is the smallest unit in a human society, which is built as a result of a man and a woman uniting through marriage and the raising up of children.
• Extended Family System There is no wonder one reconsiders and feels nostalgia for the age-old traditional family structure of the extended family system.”The basic concept of the joint family system is that more than one family come together […]
• Family Traditions and Values in the United States The preservation of individual family traditions is an important component of the cultural heritage, and the desire to follow certain customs and pass them from generation to generation emphasizes attachment to family values.
• Conflict Communication in Family Relationships People in conflict have to be ready to analyze their situations and problems to achieve the goals and come to a certain conclusion.
• Strategic Family Therapy In this regard, all the family members are considered to have unique experiences and behaviors that affect the experiences of the other members of the family.
• Assessing in the Field of Marriage and Family Therapy Through assessment, the family therapist can influence the outcome of the conversations in a consultative meeting between the troubled individual and the therapist.
• TV Shows v. The Common View of Nuclear Families In the traditional view of a nuclear family, it is the woman who is supposed to be patient with the man. It challenges the model of a happy and perfect family which was and is […]
• A General Description of the Family The purpose of this paper is to give a general description of the family, list its main characteristics, and relate them to my family.
• Significance of Family in Self-Development What we are going to discuss in this session is the importance of family in the development of an individual. Why we are focusing on this topic is to realize and recognize the role that […]
• The Concepts and Methods of Family Therapy Despite many researchers agreeing with Neil idea that couples and families should be exposed to different kinds of treatments Gurman 91 had a different opinion saying that since it has not yet been known which […]
• Family Relationship Analysis with Use of Genogram When we look at John and Mary’s relationship, we see that they have a close and stable relationship, which may have influenced their children’s and grandchildren’s communication patterns.
• Genogram in Couple and Family Therapy In addition, the patient had a close relationship with her grandmother, and her death was a traumatic event that could negatively affect Marie’s psychological state.
• Family Theories in Advanced Nursing Practice At the developmental level, the model allows for evaluating the lifecycle of the family and the level of its development as a whole, and if each member is separately.
• Dual-Earner Families and Issues Within Them Husbands should help their wives in childrearing and chores to avoid the overburden of the latter and that they have sufficient time for educational or work purposes.
• Reasoned Decision-Making in a Family Business Jane, as the head of the Payroll Department, is obligated to make choices and take actions that will contribute to the welfare and interests of the community as well as the company.
• Family Crisis Issues and Solving Them The husband becomes the only person to work and feed the family. The death of a family member is also an unpredictable source of stress and crisis within the family.
• Military Families and Their Sacrifices While the acts of heroism made by soldiers are not to be underrated, either, the great sacrifice of their families, who provide consistent support, are proud of their family members in the military, and put […]
• Family Conflict in Unigwe’s, Kwa’s, Gebbie’s Stories Coincidentally, “The kettle on the boat” seems to communicate the same theme that Dipita illustrates in the “honor of a woman”.
• Race, Ethnicity, Family and Religion Religion on the other hand, is important as it forms the basis of ideologies that a given people would ascribe to family. This occurrence shows how religion is dear and important to the lives of […]
• Genograms Role in Family and Marriage In my second marriage, the major challenge was to find a unified approach to my son and the children of my new partner.
• The Nature of Aristocratic Marriage and Family in the Mid-Heian Period The poorly defined Heian marriage system denied the women the ability to react and advocate for their human rights, Seidensticker Edward.
• Family Trend Change and Disease Factor The hastening of our customs and the organization of the family as the leading structure has led to a new family trend.
• Marriage and Alternative Family Arrangements In the selection of the marriage partners, individuals are required to adhere to the rules of endogamy as well as the rules of exogamy.
• Sociology and the Family As an example the authors explain this hypothesis as if we look at the stressful part, individuals’ and couples’ resources will meditate and moderate the association between the causes of the particular stress and the […]
• Role of Marriage/Family & Singlehood Unfortunately, there are claims that the prevailing social factors within the American society have been unfavorable thus preventing women from choosing their life partners thereby leading to an increase in number of single women in […]
• Analysis of Alice Walker’s Essay “Everyday Use” in Reference to the Idea of Power and Responsibility Within Family This statement of Maggie’s inner power provokes her mother to exercise her authority and stop Dee from plundering the house which she has never respected, loved or devoted her effort to.
• A Typical Household Family A nuclear family is understood to mean a unit consisting of the father, mother and the children, while an extended family is comprised of the nuclear family together with the rest of the family members, […]
• Elements of Strong Family In addition to the element of attention, there are other important parts to be considered in a strong and healthy family, like respect and discipline.
• Family is One of the Most Powerful Influences on an Individual’s Development From a sociological point of view, a family influences the development of an individual in a functionalistic perspective whereby the individual develops through the functions or the activities which are performed within it.
• Family Life Effects on Human Health The family’s relationship, financial status, and the type of food they take are essential factors that impact people’s health. Furthermore, family structure and the stability of relationships can positively or negatively affect a person’s health.
• Chicago School Theory and Family Studies In order to understand the nature of crime and the concept of social disorganization, one needs to perform a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon and study it from different angles.
• Family Concept in “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams The play ‘The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams focuses on the life of Amanda along with her son Tom, and “weakling” daughter Laura during the year 1937 at St.
• Fujiwara Family: Japan’s Most Powerful Clan The family of Fujiwara was one of the most powerful clans in the history of Japan. No matter whether the chief of the clan was in the government or not, he had all the necessary […]
• Family Communication in the Captain Fantastic Film First, the paper explains patterns of family communication as a factor in shaping the environment within the family and the atmosphere for the proper upbringing of the younger generation.
• Understanding and Addressing Family Stress: Parental Responses and Impact on Children The spousal relationship, employment, a lack of structure in the household, and psychological suffering all contribute to stress. They are regarded as potent mediators, and therefore, offending elders indicates disrespecting the father and may lead […]
• Dharker’s Postcards From God Book and Carter’s Family Photograph Human poverty might have many colors, and the worth of the chosen non-literary work is in the possibility of conveying the struggle in the face of inevitability.
• Home Visits and Families Empowerment The purpose of home visits is to give a more detailed assessment of the family structure, the natural or home environment, and behavior in the home environment”.
• School Family Community Partnership and Its Benefits The most exciting aspect of the School Family Community Partnership is that it has a fairly large academic base behind it.
• Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy Finally, a comprehensive review of the self of the therapists, empirical support, and the intricacies of the therapeutic alliance will end the discourse on CBFT.
• Analysis of How Australian Families Spend Their Time Most parents prefer spending quality time with both their children during the weekends especially those who employed.
• Family Health: Three-Generation Genogram Analysis Judy’s maternal grandfather died from a Heart Attack at 60 years and older and had a Stroke at 60 years and older.
• Family Issues and Adolescence in Crazy/Beautiful The film Crazy/Beautiful is a vivid example of relationships between teenage children and their parents: The problems and situations shown in the film are typical and timeless.
• The Impact of Incarceration in the African American Family This race to incarceration is the perfect example of the racism effect in the US systems as more of the African Americans are detained.
• The Stages of the Family Cycle The young person has not only to expand his budget but also has to have a bigger heart that can accommodate his fiancee’s behavior and also his in-laws’ interference with the running of his home.
• The Modern Family Concept One of the recent changes that have caught the attention of media as well as others safeguards of moral values is the phenomenon of co-parenting.
• Communicating and Collaborating With Families The idea is to have an increased presence of parents of families of the children at the school. Hence, communication is critical to the success of children, both in school and beyond.
• Psychoanalytic Approach to Family Counselling Williams adds that in the second phase of the therapy, a client is assessed based on the relationship so far existent with the therapist to determine reaction against the prevailing conditions on the influence of […]
• To What Extent Do Families Shape Children’s Lives? In particular, economic, politic, and demographic situation can have a negative impact on families resulting in disconnection of families and migration of some of the members, which does not contribute to educating and upbringing children […]
• Family in US and Saudi Arabia There are differences between family composition and notion in the United States and Saudi Arabia such as choosing a partner, polygamy, and the size of family.
• Benefits of uterine family Wolf in her book tries to explain the benefits of having uterine families in Chinese kinship system stating that both the uterine family of a woman’s maternal parent and her individual uterine relations is created […]
• Family Systems: Past and Present The type of change that happens to the institution of the family is gradual that is, various components that constitute the family have amble time of adjusting according.
• Consumerism: Affecting Families Living in Poverty in the United States Hence, leading to the arising of consumerism protection acts and policies designed to protect consumers from dishonest sellers and producers, which indicates the high degree of consumer’s ignorance, and hence failure to make decisions of […]
• The Ukita Family and the Skeen Family Therefore, the members of the Skeen family are less concerned with material well-being because all household appliances are placed in the background of the photo.
• A Beautiful Mind: Understanding Schizophrenia and Its Impact on the Individual and the Family The psychological disorder presented in the movie refer to one of the most common of schizophrenia paranoia. The disorder, however, is still subjected to experimental treatments by means of medications and psychotherapy.
• Family Stratification Overview This is due to the objective processes of marriage and family relations in all economically developed countries in the system of systems, which entails a decrease in the birth rate, an increase in the number […]
• The Topic of Complex Family Relations For example, the difference in tones in “Sonny’s Blues” and “Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter,” the plot is rather dramatic, providing a pessimistic perception of the story.

⭐ Engaging Titles about Family to Write about

• Family Concept in “The Story of Us” Movie
• Competing in Preposterousness: Analyzing Barbara Bergman’s Feedback to Gary Becker’s Theory of Family
• Blended Families and Crises
• Counseling Interview in Family and Relationship Therapy
• Social Media and the Family
• Family Relationships Role in the Business
• Planning a Family Vacation
• Two Communication Rules in My Family
• A Choice of a Family Vacation Destination
• The Modern Perception of Family
• How Family Affects Criminal Behavior: Hatred Murders
• Feasibility of Developing a Family Business
• Family and Culture: Major Problems Facing Families Around the World
• Home-Start Family Supporting Program: Supporting Program for Children and Their Families
• Family Is a Universal Social Institution
• Marriage and Family Problems as Social Issues
• Cohabitation: Family Environment and Life
• Child Neglect Index for a Boy and His Family
• Parental Care and Its Role in Poor Families
• Minuchin Family Therapy of Eating Disorders
• Social Work and Addiction in Family Settings
• “Public and Private Families: An Introduction” and “Public and Private Families: A Reader” by Andrew Cherlin: Summary
• Analysis of the Peculiarities of Gender Roles Within Education, Families and Student Communities
• Gender Stratification in Education, Work, and Family
• The Family Setting
• Long Deployment for Military Families
• Chronic Disease Impact on Patient’s Family
• The Roles of Families in Virtual Learning
• Families and Social Class: Chapter 4 of “The Family” by Philip N. Cohen
• Origins of the American Family
• Stay-At-Home Mother’s Contribution to the Family Economy
• Pornography and Its Influence on Families
• Family Communication: A Professional Journal Article
• The Family From a Social Institution Perspective
• Chapter 3 of “The Family” Book by Philip N. Cohen
• Leadership, Family, and Community Collaboration Project
• Navigating the Ambiguity of Family
• Family Health Assessment: Child Poverty, Toxic Stress
• Families from a Sociological Perspective
• Mental Health Nurse’s Communication With Patients and Families
• The Shared Table as a Family Tradition
• Family Artifact and Ethnic Identity
• Traditional Family Roles’ Impact on Haitian Teens in New Jersey
• Newark Emergency Services for Families’ Marketing Plan
• Challenges and Approaches to Family Counseling
• Unforgiveness in Marriages and Families
• The Role of Family in American Poems and Short Stories
• Home, Work, and Relationships in Modern Families
• Developmental Psychology of an Immigrant Family
• Exploring the Interplay of Family, Philosophy, and Politics
• Mental Disorder: Treating a Family Member
• The Early Learning Child Care Act: Family Impact Analysis
• Family Counseling: Resolving Conflict and Promoting Wellness
• The Role of Nurses in Family-Based Interventions
• A Family-Centered Cesarean Birth: Experience and Bonding
• A Mexican Family Health Assessment
• Family-Centered Health Assessment and Promotion
• Diversity and Its Impact on Family Form and Function
• The Family-Centered Care Principles
• Conference: Family System and Support
• Counseling for Family Conflicts Resolution
• Feminist Perspective on Family Counselling
• College Education and Family Foundation
• Discussion: Career and Family Roles
• Workplace Discrimination: Impact of Family-Friendly Policies
• Family Business Succession in Asian Countries
• Non-Traditional Family Case Study
• Family Diversity: Asian-Pacific Islander
• Family Hui Hawaii: A Non-Profit Supporting Families
• LGBTQ+ Families: Discrimination and Challenges
• Health Intervention among Patients and the Families
• Family Behavioral Therapy: Case Analysis
• Second-Grade Class Family and Community Engagement Plan
• Analysis of Family Hui Hawaii
• Biomedical Technologies and Natural Family Planning
• Screening Interventions and Family Factors in Improving Patient Health
• Engaging Mobile Apps in Family Planning
• Paid Family Leave Policy Analysis
• The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act’s Role
• Healthcare and Family Diversity
• The Contemporary Racist Realities in American Families
• Family Education for Valuing the Elderly
• South African-American Family Cultural Assessment
• Managing Interpersonal Relationships in Family
• Schools and Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• The Ethical Dimension of Family Therapy
• Social Determinates of Health of a Family
• Discussion of Family Education Aspects
• The Effect of Gentrification on Low-Income Families
• Family Diversities and Demographics in the USA
• Case Study: A Multi-Problem Appalachian Family
• Modern Day Families and Homesickness
• Lobo Family: The Case of Migration
• Classroom Strategies and Family Involvement
• Holidays, Schools, and Family: Family Language Policy on Holiday
• Initiative on Protecting Child and Family Well-Being
• Social Changes and the Development of Family, Education, and Religion
• Role of Family in Reducing Juvenile Delinquency
• The Healthcare Cost Interview with a Family Member
• Challenges of Families with Down Syndrome Children
• Stable Radicals Families: Synthesis and Properties
• Family Behaviors, Inequality, and Outside Childbearing Marriage
• How Understanding of Family Influenced Assessment
• How the Pandemic Has Stressed Families
• Paid Family Medical Leave in America
• Hayman-Woodward’s Paid Family Medical Leave
• Modern Parenthood and Family Instability
• Resource Availability for Low-Income Families in New York
• Inter Families’ Football Competition Event
• Therapeutic Intervention in Families
• The Family Voices Organization’s Mission & Services
• Communities Supporting Families
• Social Mobility and Family Occupation Tree
• The Family Institution and Impact of Polygamy
• The Stress of Working with Families
• Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies”: The Issues Surrounding Families Today
• Sexual Functioning and Family Life-Cycle Stages
• Obesity Risk Factors: Impact of Family Background
• Family Relationship: Life-Span Development
• Conservatism and Liberalism: Discussion of the Decline of Nuclear Families
• Relationship: Communication Between Family Members
• Delivering Care to Culturally Diverse Families
• Family in America and Its Most Common Types
• How Social Programs and Policies Impact the Family
• Sociology of the Family: Gender Roles
• “Family Relationships in What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona” by S. Alexie
• Family Ties and Obligations as the Driver of Antigone’s Actions in Sophocles’ Play
• Stress as a Result of Combining Work and Family
• Determining the Applicable Law on Family Matter
• Sociology of the Family: Love and Relationships
• Beowulf Defeats Grendel: Relationships With Family, Women, and His Own Gender
• Disintegration of Family and Societal Relations in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”
• Aspects of Marriage and Family Life
• Family Development Center Program’s Improvement
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Families’ Issues
• Gender Theory and the Division of Labor in Families
• Consequences of Pandemic COVID-19: The Psychological Climate in the Family
• Parenting Models in Modern Family Unit of Emigrants in the USA
• Families, Gender Relations and Social Change in Brazil
• The Life Model Helping Immigrant Families
• Family Unit Structures Comparison
• Explaining of Theories of Family Science
• Navigating the System For Families Experiencing Homelessness
• Social Constructionism in Couple and Family Therapy
• Research on Families and Inequality
• Ambiguous Loss: Immigration and Separation of Families
• Infidelity as the Main Cause of Family Divorce
• Family and Work Patterns in Contemporary British Society
• Family-Centered Health and School Age and Adolescent Development
• Family-Centered Health and Development: Pediatric Nurses’ Role
• Impact of Chronic Illness on Families
• Theories of Family Science Overview
• Families Recovery From Substance Abuse
• Comparing the Level of Comfort of Registered Nurses Related to Family Presence During Resuscitation
• Asian Americans and Latino Families: Race and Ethnicity
• The Blucare Family Organization’s Interventions
• Clayton County Division of Family and Children Services
• New York’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
• Why the Theories Matter in Child and Family Health Practice
• Impactful Policy for Child and Family Health Practitioners
• Programs in Family Sleep Institute
• The Family’s Health Status: The Social Determinants of Health
• Patient Education, Psychosocial Factors, and Family Roles in Making Decision
• Federal Guidelines on Procedural Safeguards of Special Needs’ Children and Families
• Family Literacy Night
• The Implementation of Family-Based Therapy to Manage Anxiety Disorder in Adolescents
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Nation’s Health
• Vulnerable Families: Problems With Access to Healthcare
• Family Support and Family Psychoeducational Models
• Family Planning Individual Case Critique
• A Loss of a Family Member and Counseling
• Telehealth Communication Between Family and Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Social Policy and Family Resilience
• Developing an App for Building a Financial System for a Family
• Children’s Corner: Family and Community Engagement Plan
• Family Health Promotion Strategies
• “How Home Hospice Care Facilitates Patient and Family Engagement”: Article Analysis
• Two Families Social Comparison
• The Concept of Family Health
• Child Development and Family Resources
• “Three Years After Family Separation…” by Dickerson
• Families With a Chronically Ill Child: Issues and Techniques
• Researching of Family Demographics
• Disaster Planning for Families: Is Your Family Prepared?
• Psychic Effects of Detached Family and Social Relations
• Working With Families: Important Aspects
• Challenging the “Standard North American Family”
• Genogram and Genomap: Family Group Analysis
• Immigrant Families and English Acquisition
• Future of the Family Business in World
• Family Mediation: Advantages and Disadvantages
• Diversity Analysis in Families
• Family Relationship in the Thappad Film
• Resiliency: Community, Family, and Individual Needs
• Family Style Meals in the Childcare Setting
• Psychometric Evaluation of the Family-Centered Care Scale
• Palliative Care: What Constitutes the Best Technique for Technicians Communication With Patients and Families?
• Family/Patient-Centered Care: A Letter
• Different Cases on Family Law
• Family Law: Presumptions
• Family Intervention Strategies at a National and Local Level
• The Importance of a Family Facilitator During Resuscitation
• Providing Holistic Care to the Family Members: Palliative Care
• Family Relationship, Childhood Delinquency, Criminality
• Analysis of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
• Genetic Family Historical Analysis
• Conger’s Stress and Family With Children
• Defining the US Family
• Food Work in the Family and Gender Aspects of Food Choice
• Family Nursing and Stress Theory
• Debate on Effect of the Environment on Family
• Family Health Assessment by Gordon
• Family Plan For Specific Hazards and Risks
• The Effectiveness of ICU Nurses in Reducing Stress among Family Members
• Family Law: Succession and Probate Practice

🥇 Most Interesting Family Essay Topics

• Patients Lawsuits and Their Families Against Hospitals
• Family Law and Matrimonial Practices
• Critical Appraisal on the Impact of Autism Spectrum Disorders on the Family: A Qualitative Study of Mothers’ Perspectives
• Family Health History. Nursing Practice
• Crime and Family Background Correlation
• Family Health Assessment: Health Promotion Strategy
• Should Family-Witnessed Resuscitation Be Allowed in the Emergency Department?
• Gender Bias in Family Court
• Modality of Family Faith and Meanings and Relationships in Family Life
• Family Health Care: The Morrison Family
• Cultural Aspects While Assessing the Family
• Family History Project
• Definitions and Discussions of the Family Leave Act
• Family Values in Nursing
• The Twinning Process: Biological and Family Aspects
• Evaluation of the Sound Families Initiative
• “Family Law Fifth Edition” by William P. Statsky
• Family and Community Violence Exposure Among Youth
• Family Theory Use With Dementia
• Evolution of the Caregiving Experience in the Initial 2 Years Following Stroke
• Family Health Assessment Proforma
• Nursing Care of a Family With a Stillborn
• Self-Health Assessment With Reference to Family Genogram
• The Issues Influencing Contemporary Australian Families
• The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• The Williams’ Family Story
• Family Violence in “Story of a Girl” by Zarr
• Family Professional Collaboration
• Homeless Families Analysis
• A Phenomenological Study of Families With Drug-Using Children
• The Essence of Family Nursing Theories
• No Respect Given to Military Family
• The MacMaster Model Family: The Williams Assessment
• “Gender Differences in Work-Family Guilt in Parents of Young Children”: Quantitative Research Critique
• Family Communication Comparison: Interconnected System
• Social Distancing: Communication With Patients Families
• Family Factors and Youth Suicide
• Family and Domestic Violence: Enhancing Protective Factors
• The Story of Us (1990): A Happy Family?
• Tuareg Community Family Life
• Family Systems Theory: Parenting and Family Diversity Issues
• Same‐Sex Couples, Families, and Marriage
• PSDM Model Usage in Solving Family Conflicts
• Who Does Protect Poor Families Living in the Districts of Street Gangs?
• Family Medical Leave Act and it’s Effect on Organisational Policies
• Gender, Family, and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression
• How Did the Movie “Life as We Know It” Demonstrate the Conflict in a Family Institution?
• Features of Marital and Family Therapy
• Family Structure, Family Process and Father Involvement
• Religion, Family and Culture
• Sticking Together: Family Relations Analysis
• Choices and Theories: Theoretical Perspectives of the Family and Mate Selection
• Genograms in Family Assessment
• Developmental Psychology: The Impact of Family-Of-Origin on Adulthood
• Women, Men, Work, and Family: An Expansionist Theory
• Obesity as a Family Issue in the Community
• “Family Partnerships” by Jobeth Allen
• A Family Anticipating: Young Children
• How Slavery Has Affected the Lives and Families of the African Americans?
• “The Military Family” by James Martin
• Communication Amongst Military Families
• The Family Commons at Cabrillo: A Case Analysis
• The Film “Avalon” by Barry Levinson and Points of View of Changes Inside American Family
• The Depiction of Family Ties and Their Strong Significance in the World Mythology
• Family Concepts and Traditional Values for Women
• Marriage and Family Systems: Western Society and Kadara of Nigeria
• First Language Acquisition in a Multilingual Family
• Postpartum Psychosis: Impact on Family
• Canadian and American Families: Comparative Analysis
• “The Essentials of Family Therapy” by Nichols
• Malay Muslim Traditions and Cultural Identity
• Family Relationships in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
• Family Planning: Hospital Birth or Home Birth?
• Family Tutoring Program Design
• The American Family: Current Problems
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• Price Discrimination in Healthcare and Family Health Care Insurance
• American Family: Where We Are Today
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• Family Therapy for Treating Major Depression
• Why Are Families in the World-Changing?
• Universal Concept of Family: Future Perspectives
• Recovering From a Traumatic Brain Injury: Cognitive Rehabilitation
• Jewish Family’s Experiences During the Holocaust
• The Institution of Family Analysis
• Family and Medical Leave Act in the Workplace
• Adulthood and Aging. Family Contacts and Support
• Health, Social Behavior and the Study of the Family
• Family Therapy With Cultural Groups
• Autism. Child and Family Assessment
• Family in the Revolutionary Asia
• “Decline of the Family” by Janet Z. Giele Review
• “The Ecology of the Family” by Prophete A.
• What Makes a Step Family a Real Family?
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• The Roles in the Bringing up of Children: Family Therapy
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• Family Business: R&S Electronic Service Company
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• African American Family Cultural Background
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• Families in the Media Portrayal
• Family Studies and Research Approaches
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• Food Insecurity and Depression in Poor Families
• Poverty in American Single-Parent Families
• Family Unit and Gender Roles in Society and Market
• The Politics of Theorizing African American Families
• Depictions of Family Life
• Family Issues in the United States of the XXI Century
• Re-Assessing Family Valuables
• Family as a Social Institution
• Sociological Significance of Family
• Child Clinical Interviewing and Family Involvement
• Grandparents as Parental Figures in Modern Families
• Family Welfare and Divorce Policies
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• Telehealth Tools to Support Family Caregivers
• Interpersonal Communication Skills: Closeness in Families
• Family Systems and Relationship Development
• Family and Domestic Violence Legislation in the US
• Wellness and Counseling in Family Systems Therapy
• Family and Childhood Sociology and Changes
• Family-School Partnerships in the United Arab Emirates
• Family Aggresion and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory
• Ethical Responsibilities and Families Support
• Family and Relationships: New Tendencies
• The Graham Family and the Washington Post Company
• Religion, Family and Their Social Aspects
• Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods
• Family Versus Societal Needs Priority
• Family Support for Patient with Kidney Failure
• Family Food and Meals Traditions in Dubai History
• Family Laws in the UK, South Africa, Saudi Arabia
• Family Business: Success or Challenge?
• Cultural Influences on Family Values and Habits
• Individualized Family Service Plan vs. Education Program
• Work and Family: Institutional Logic
• Family Relationships in Media and Theories
• Presence of Family Members during Resuscitation
• Complementary Conflict Patterns in Families
• Family Planning in “Letters to Catherine” Blog
• Disney’s Representation of Couples and Families
• Black Families’ Issues in the “Soul Food” Series
• Family Reaction to a Child Loss and Intervention
• Fresh Food Provision for Low-Income Families
• Strengthening Families Program and Its Benefits
• Child Abuse and Neglect and Family Practice Model
• Breaking Structure of Modern Families
• The Family Systems Theory: Mahaley’s Case
• Capellaville Early Childhood Family Education: School Readiness
• Family Involvement in a Child’s Learning Process
• Households and Family Decision-Making
• What Impact Does Family Size Have On Conformity?
• What Makes Family Values From Regular Values?
• What Makes Friends Different From Family?
• What Role Does Family Play in Children’s Education?
• What Role Does Love Play in Family Relationships?
• Are Traditional Family Games a Thing of the Past?
• Balancing Work and Family: Be a Working Mother or a Housewife?
• Can Family Caregiving Substitute for Nursing Home Care?
• Can Old Family Structures Meet New Economic Challenges?
• Can Parental Time Commitment and Family Economic Status Influence Child?
• Are Family Members More Important Than Friends?
• Is Family the Most Important Agent of Socialisation?
• Are Single Parent Homes a Dysfunctional Model of Family?
• Did the Industrial Revolution Disrupt the American Family?
• Does Changing Gender Role Affect Family Relationship?
• Does Custody Law Affect Family Behavior in and Out of Marriage?
• Does Family Composition Affect Social Networking?
• Does Family Planning Help the Employment of Women?
• Does Gay Marriage Threaten the Family?
• Does Publicly Provided Home Care Substitute for Family Care?
• Does Taxation Affect Marriage and Family Planning Decisions?
• Does Technology Ruin Family Life?
• Does the American Family Have a History?
• Does the Student-Loan Burden Weigh Into the Decision to Start a Family?
• Does the Welfare State Destroy the Family?
• Does Work-Time Flexibility Improve the Reconciliation of Family and Work?
• Family Dinners Cause Well Behave Children?
• Are Social Network Sites Affecting the Family?
• How Does Family Size Directly Affect Family Relationships?
• How Does Family Status Affect Education?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Write an Essay about Family: From Introduction to Conclusion

Essay about the Family

Students have to write essays for a variety of goals. Often, students fail when asked to write about simple topics such as a friend, a hobby, or even their family.

It is due to a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of essay writing. Furthermore, few people anticipate that they may have to write such essays.

However, college is not all about research and analysis. Occasionally, students have to write easy essays to evaluate their mastery of the fundamentals. When it comes to style and arrangement, a family essay shares the same characteristics as other essays.

People Also Read: Essay Writing Topics with Answers:21 Examples in English

Why is Family a Good Topic for An Essay

Writing a family essay should be straightforward, but you must be well-prepared with the necessary material. Know what to put in your body.

Decide how much personal information about your family you are willing to share.

However, a family essay is both a personal and a narrative essay and can also be challenging. 

On a personal level, you talk about your family, and on a narrative level, you briefly narrate your family to your audience.

When writing a family essay, it is important to determine what facts to include and what information to leave out. It keeps you from boring your audience by going into further detail. You should avoid revealing a lot of information about your family.

Think about your place in the family when writing a family essay. Are you the oldest, youngest, or somewhere in between? What this means to you and how it affects your family.

You have fun while explaining the family traditions that make you unique. Each family has a tradition that they enjoy observing and enhances their closeness.

Touch on the responsibilities or functions of each member of the family. You primarily discuss the kind of obligations that each family member has based on their age. Finally, explain how the responsibilities are handled and who is in charge of ensuring their fulfillment.

You can bring up family issues such as incompatible marriages and other disagreements that arise in any family.

Explain how your family handles such situations and how you restore communication within the family in a few words. This is a challenging topic to broach, but it is critical to your essay’s success. Do you have any family members of a different ethnicity or some who are not your blood relatives? Do you communicate with your relatives?

Explain your extended family’s relationship with you and what brings you together the most.

Consider your family bonding time. When do you spend time as a family bonding?

Describe how you and your family work together to make special occasions memorable. You can highlight family when writing about people who inspire you.

People Also Read: Is Using an Essay Writing Service Cheating: It’s Legal

How to Write an Essay About Family

1. explain your topic about family.

Provide a brief background, context, or a narrative about your topic.

Describe where your subject is right now. Compare and contrast the past with the present. You can also tell a bad story or one that is based on gossip.

Retell the tale or the definition or explanation you provided with an uplifting end.

2. Craft your Thesis About the Family

 Begin your paper with a compelling hook, such as a thought-provoking quotation. It serves to attract the audience’s attention and pique interest in your essay.

You should also come up with a thesis statement that is appropriate for your target audience. The thesis statement serves as a fast summary of your essay’s contents.

The introduction allows you to provide the reader with a formal presentation of your work. The section should stand out to grab the attention of your readers. Alternately, you may give a brief, straightforward explanation of the problem you have will discuss throughout your family essay.

This section also summarizes the approach you use to study the issue.

Moreover, it lays out the structure and organization of the body of the paper and the prospective outcomes. You never have a second chance to make a good first impression, so a well-written introduction is critical.

Your readers form their first perceptions of your logic and writing style in the first few paragraphs of your work.

This section helps in determining whether your conclusions and findings are accurate. A sloppy, chaotic, or mistake-filled introduction will give a poor first impression.

A concise, engaging, and well-written introduction will get the audience to respect your analytical talents, writing style, and research approach. Close with a paragraph that summarizes the paper’s structure.

3. Write your Arguments About Family

 Expand the major themes into individual paragraphs to form the body of your essay. The thesis statement establishes the foundation of your argument. Begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence that includes a clear and concise explanation as well as details about your family.

This will allow your audience to learn more about you and your family.

Use transition sentences to let your readers know when you are introducing a new point in your argument. Cover each facet of your argument in a different paragraph or section, if your essay is lengthy. You should also logically discuss them, making connections where possible. Support your case by referencing previous studies.

Depending on your topic, you may use existing studies or experimental data, such as a questionnaire for evidence to support each claim. Without proof, all you have is an unsupported allegation.

4. Recognize Counter-Arguments

 Consider the other side of the argument. It enables you to anticipate objections to your perspective, which bolsters your case. Your objective is to persuade the reader to accept the recommendations or claims made in your essay.

Knowing what you are suggesting and how your arguments support it will make it easier to express yourself appropriately.

Make a strong conclusion based on what you have learned so far. It is crucial to conclude your essay by explaining how the evidence you have presented backs up your claim. Also, illustrate how each point adds to the broader argument.

Everything in your paper must support your main point, from the literature review to the conclusion.

5. Cite and Reference

 Many academically approved citations forms exist, including MLA, APA, Chicago, and others.

You can choose from the popular styles or ask your institution which one they prefer. There is no need to quote information that is commonly known.

Facts and common knowledge have no copyright protection; thus, you can use them freely. Each citation in the text should correspond to the bibliography or reference list at the end of your essay.

What Do You Think About Family

What is your side.

Family should signify a unity of acceptance, joy, love, unconditional sacrifices, and support. It rests on a continuum of resilience and humility from previous, current, and future generations.

what is the other people’s side

Family means something different to each of us, yet it is one of the core values. It starts with respect for and appreciation for others, regardless of their age, where they are, where they came from, how capable, who they love, their experiences, how healthy they are, etc.

Community, sisterhood, and brotherhood are all aspects of family.

People Also Read: Writing a 400 Word Essay: Length and How to write it Well

9 Examples of Essay Topics About Family

• The American Family: Decrease in Family Size and Its Historical Factors
• The Impact of Divorce and Separation on Family Relationships
• Building Family and Community Relationships
• Family`s Factors Shaping Children`s Behavior
• Healthy Marriage and Family Relationships
• Family History Role in Primary Health Care
• Family Happiness Definition and Aspects
• Changing Gender Roles in Families
• Divorce and Single-Parent Families

When not handling complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.

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Search form

About my family.

Look at the email and do the exercises to practise and improve your writing skills.

Instructions

Do the preparation exercise first. Then read the email and do the other exercises.

Preparation

Do this exercise before you start.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: My family

Let me tell you about my family. I live with my mum, my dad and my big sister. We live in California. My mum’s name is Carmen. She’s Mexican and she speaks English and Spanish. She’s a Spanish teacher. She’s short and slim, she’s got long, brown hair and brown eyes. My dad’s name is David. He’s American. He’s tall and a little fat! He’s got short brown hair and blue eyes. He works in a bank. My sister Shania is 14 and she loves listening to music. She listens to music all the time! She’s got long brown hair and green eyes, like me. I’ve got long hair too. We’ve got a pet dog, Brandy. He’s black and white and very friendly.

Write soon and tell me about your family.

Check your understanding: gap fill

Check your writing: gap fill, check your writing: multiple choice, worksheets and downloads.

Do you have a big family?

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• My Family Essay

Essay on My Family

A family is God’s greatest gift to all living beings on earth including human beings. A person without family and its love is never complete and happy. A family is one with whom you can share all your joys and sorrows. Family stands by you at the toughest situations in life. Family gives you the warmth and affection that you may not get anywhere else. I too am blessed with such a family. My family has always been my strength. My mother, father, sister and I complete my family.

My Mother 

My mother is the strongest woman I have ever seen in my life. She is a super woman. She can manage everything at the same time so beautifully and confidently. She is a fine individual with poise and dignity. She is the pivot around whom our family revolves. She has raised us with important values in life. She explained to us the true essence of love and compassion. She also tells us the importance of spirituality. She has given utmost importance to our education. She coordinates with our teachers in school and helps us with our weaknesses. My mother is an amazing cook and takes care of what we like to eat. She’s  just not a housewife. She is an entrepreneur too. She owns a restaurant managing a staff of 30 boys. It is indeed not an easy job but she manages everything very efficiently. She is an inspiration to all of us. She is indispensable to our family.

My father is a man of strong principles. His presence at home itself gives us a sense of security and hope. He is very gentle, disciplined and strict. He is a software engineer by qualification and works for a multinational company. Since the headquarters of his company is in The United States of America, he frequently needs to travel. I know he feels very sorry that he is not able to spend much time with us due to work pressure and travel but whenever he is at home he makes the best of it. He has a good sense of humor. He makes us laugh with his jokes and keeps telling us about his work experience. I get a lot of insight from it and clarity of what field I can take when I grow up. I have learnt a most important and valuable lesson from him that is being content in life with whatever I have. The atmosphere in our home becomes so cheerful and joyful when he is around. It gives a feeling of a complete family. He is a dutiful son towards his mother. Even though my grandmother doesn’t live with us, my father carries all his duties and responsibilities for her very diligently. I feel proud to be his son. I want to grow like him and take care of my parents the way he does.

My sister is three years older than me. She is a very soft and gentle girl. She is my best friend and a confidant. We fight on silly things but I know she really cares for me and loves me a lot. She always protects me from getting scolded by my mother. She is an artist and helps me with all my drawings. My sister supports and stands by me when seniors in my school bully me. I feel very secure around her when I am away from my parents.

To Conclude

My family has taught me to be a better person. I am blessed and fortunate enough to have such a wonderful family who has taught me important values in life. I am very grateful and I thank God for the most precious gift.

The childrens who live with a mother and a father are known as a small discern family. A couple in which more than two children reside is referred to as a huge discern family. And a family in which mother, father and youngsters, besides grandparents, uncles and aunts, a circle of relatives stays together is referred to as a joint family . My family is a small joint family. Apart from siblings, mother and father, grandparents also stay with us. Our family plays a crucial role within the making of any development. With the increase in the circle of relatives, India climbs the ladder of improvement. The country is formed by way of its own family and global fashion with the aid of nations. This is why it's far stated, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” means the entire world is our circle of relatives. And it had superb importance in ancient India, which is slowly becoming extinct with time. A primary purpose for this is the conversion of the joint family into the unique circle of relatives.

Significance of Family in My Lifestyle

My own family, despite being a joint own family, is a happy family. And I am glad that I was born in this joint circle of relatives. wherein it became simplest through our own family that we had been able to study the critical things of existence in our children which we could rarely analyze thru books. each of my parents ' paintings in faculty. At some point during my stay at home, my siblings and I spoke many topics with our grandparents, which is quite exciting. Other than this, we also have one of our dogs, who is a part of our circle of relatives.

Family as Safety Clause

A family provides safety from outside evils and risks, that is, the man or woman is protected from all varieties of outside failures within their own family, in addition to the physical, mental and highbrow improvement of a character is due to the circle of relatives. The circle of relatives creates a secure environment for the kid and all our expectations and wishes are met via the family. My circle of relatives is a middle-class family, still my mother and father try their best to fulfill each of mine and my siblings wishes. The love from the circle of relatives towards me takes me closer to my family and helps me recognize my obligations in the direction of my own family. A person additionally will become a responsible citizen of society by the habit of spitting out his responsibilities. Every family individual faces hassle collectively during their difficult time.

Importance of Elders Inside the Family

A joint family in which our elders (grandparents, grandparents) stay with us, is the most important thing to focus on as they are not part of the authentic circle of relatives so that kids are deprived of understanding many critical beliefs and values. In advance, children used to play on time and additionally concentrate on the tales of grandparents, which gave them information, however the kids of the prevailing time use mobile from their adolescence to play. The authentic family has additionally taken away the kid’s formative years.

What the child will become inside is the destiny that depends totally on the child’s own family. With the help of the proper steerage, even a susceptible baby kisses is a brand new dimension of achievement inside the future. On the contrary, a brilliant student forgets his intention due to wrong steering and is left at the back of inside the race of life.

FAQs on My Family Essay

1. How can you Define a Family?

A family is a group of people who are related and live together in every situation. Family normally comprises mother, father, sister, brother, grand parents, uncles and aunts.

2. Why is Family Important?

Family is important to us because it gives us the warmth, love and affection that you may not get anywhere in the world. Family teaches the high moral values in life and makes you a better human being.

3. How does your father inspire you?

My father inspires me with his hard work, honesty and diligence. He is very loving and caring and binds the entire family together.

4. Why should you thank god for giving a family?

I thank God and am very grateful for the most precious gift of family because family members give unconditional love, care and affection. I am what I am because of my family. My family completes me.

Short Essay on My Family [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

Writing essays on Family has always been in trend in many English comprehension tests around the world. In this lesson today, you will learn how you can concisely write short essays on ‘my family’ within the recommended word limit.

Short Essay on My Family in 100 Words 

Family is an important part of everyone’s life. I live in a joint family with my grandparents, parents, uncle and aunt as well as my siblings and cousins. We also have a pet dog whom we consider a part of our family. All the members of my family love, respect and care for each other. No matter how busy everyone is, we make sure to sit down and have dinner together every night.

We share our happiness and discuss our problems with each other. The elders always give us good advice and guide us in our lives. We also love going out for family picnics and outings during holidays. I love my family. 

Short Essay on My Family in 200 Words 

A person’s family is an integral part of his or her life. Some people have a small family while others are blessed with a large family. I live in a joint family with my grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts as well as my siblings and cousins. All the members of my family love, respect and care for each other. My siblings, cousins and I go to the same school and are always there for each other.

My parents are teachers while my uncles are in the police force. Despite being busy with their jobs, all the elders share the responsibility of doing household chores and do not leave all the burden on the women of the house. My mother also helps us with our studies and homework. 

We have a huge dining table and every night, all the family members sit together to dine. We share our happiness and troubles with each other. If a family member is in some kind of difficulty, other members do their best to help him or her.

The elders always share their wisdom with us and show us the right path. We also love going out together and we go for family outings every once in a while. I am thankful that I am blessed with such a wonderful family. 

Short Essay on My Family in 400 Words 

A family can mean different things to different people. In a traditional sense, it is a group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption living together. Some people have a small family while some others are blessed with a large family. I live in a joint family. My parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts all live together. I also have two siblings and three cousins. We go to the same school and get along very well. 

My parents are teachers while my uncles work in the police force. One of my aunts is a nurse and the other is a housewife. My grandfather used to work in a steel factory and is now retired. All the members of my family love, respect and care for each other. No matter how busy everyone is, we make sure to spend quality time with each other.

All the members share the responsibility of the household chores and do not let the entire burden fall on the women of the house. Being teachers, my parents also tutor us children at home and help us with our homework. 

We have a huge dining table in our living room and every night, all the family members sit together to dine. We share our happiness and discuss our problems with each other. The elders always share their wisdom and guide us in our lives. Whenever my parents or uncles are in some sort of difficulty, they consult my grandparents for their advice.

My grandfather loves to talk about politics and my father and uncles often join him. Oftentimes their opinions don’t match, yet they are very respectful of each other and the difference in their views. My family has taught me how to always be respectful and polite. 

My family loves to go out together and we often go for family outings. Our favourite is a picnic spot near our house where we go almost every two weeks. We also have good relations with our other relatives and they visit us during the holidays. Having a large family is amazing. Even when our parents are busy or out of town, we are never left alone.

There is always someone to take care of us when we fall sick and there is always someone to rely on when we need help. It is said that a person’s family influences their nature, character and personality a lot. I am blessed to have such a wonderful family. It is because of their good influence that I have become a good person. 

That was everything about writing short essays on ‘My Family.’ In these essays, I have adopted a very simplistic approach with easy words and sentences for easy understanding of all kinds of students. If you still have any doubts regarding this session, kindly mention that in the comment section below. To read more such essays on various important topics, keep browsing our website.

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Exploring and Sharing Family Stories

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

In this lesson, students are encouraged to explore the idea of memory in both large- and small-group settings. Students access their own life experiences and then discuss family stories they have heard. After choosing a family member to interview, students create questions, interview their relative, and write a personal narrative that describes not only the answers to their questions but their own reactions to these responses. These narratives are peer reviewed and can be published as a class magazine or a website.

From Theory to Practice

• The topic of memory can engage students in both reading and writing, especially if those activities act as a bridge between school and family.
• Students can be encouraged to view their own life history and that of other family members as a composition that is created through memory and that is therefore subject to constant revision and documentation.
• Requiring students to pay attention to and craft both their own memories and those of other people can help them become more thoughtful readers and writers in other contexts.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Video or tape recorders (optional)
• Chart paper
• Note to Families
• Personal Narrative Assignment Sheet
• Oral History Questions worksheet
• How to Interview a Relative worksheet
• Peer Review Worksheet
• "Mixing Memory and Desire: A Family Literacy Event" by Mark Faust
• Family Memories Narrative Rubric

Preparation

Student objectives.

Students will

• Access personal and family memories by discussing them in large- and small-group settings
• Demonstrate comprehension by reviewing other personal narratives and discussing how they might apply some of the same techniques to their own work
• Apply critical-thinking skills by translating what they see in these narratives into potential interview questions
• Practice knowledge acquisition by learning how to best conduct an interview and taking notes during their interview to use for their future personal narrative.
• Work collaboratively by peer reviewing each other's work
• Practice synthesizing information and writing by assembling their notes into a personal narrative

Homework (due by Session 3): Students should bring home the Note to Families and talk about interviewing an older relative. With help, they should determine whom they are going to talk to for this assignment and how the interview will be conducted (for example, over the phone or email or by visiting the relative). Students should contact the relative and should come to Session 3 with a name and the format their interview will take.

Homework (due before Session 4): Write at least five interview questions.

Note: Students need to have finalized their interview questions by this session. You may need to leave time for them to turn in several drafts.

Homework: Students should complete their interviews and write drafts of their personal narratives by Session 5. The amount of time you give students to complete this work is up to you, but it should be a minimum of a week.

Sessions 5 and 6

Homework: Students should revise their personal narratives using the feedback from the peer review sheets. They should turn in these sheets along with their interview questions and notes when they hand in their final personal narrative. You may want to give them time (and encourage them) to contact their relatives for further questioning or clarification after the peer review sessions.

Bring the class back together for a final discussion about memory and what they learned by interviewing their relative and writing the personal narrative. Questions for discussion include:

• When reading other people's narratives, did you see any similarities with your own narrative? What were they?
• What was unique to your own narrative?
• Did you see any differences in experiences based on where people lived?
• Why do you think it is important for people to share their life stories?
• If you were writing your own life story, what are some things you would include?
• Publish the student narratives as a magazine or website. If you do this, you might collect family photos from each student. Allow students time in class to review the publication.
• Have students share their stories with younger classes. A class "author's night" could also be arranged to share stories with family members (including interview subjects).
• Have students read the novel The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines (Bantam, 1982). Have students compare this fictional personal narrative with the ones they wrote.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Assess student participation during both whole-class discussions and small-group work using your observations and anecdotal notes.
• Evaluate the interview questions and the notes from the actual interview. How well were students able to use the materials you provided (the Oral History Questions worksheet and the How to Interview a Relative worksheet) to develop their interview questions and conduct their interviews? Did students choose thoughtful and appropriate questions? Did they use these questions during the interview? Did they take opportunities to ask related questions while interviewing their relative?
• Use the Family Memories Narrative Rubric to evaluate the completed personal narratives and peer review forms.

Students imagine they have been asked to participate in a museum exhibit, take photos/videos of a significant location, and write or record reflections. Students can also create an exhibit from something they have read.

Students interview a parent or another adult about the Challenger and hypothesize about differences. Students can also write about the Columbia disaster in 2003.

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9 Tips for Getting Started on Writing Your Family History

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Written by Diane Haddad, unless otherwise noted.

Once you’ve been doing genealogy research for a while, and you have a family tree or a computer hard drive or a filing cabinet with a bunch of notes and old records, you might wonder what to do with it all. Or perhaps you’ve always harbored the dream of sharing your family history, and you’re not sure how.

It’s a hard truth: Few people have much use for an unstructured assortment of documents and computer files. Even folks who are curious about their family history—and that describes most I’ve met—aren’t likely to sort through your research and rebuild the store of knowledge you’ve amassed over years.

If your family research is to live beyond you, you’ll need to do the work of putting it into some shareable, lasting form. That usually means summarizing your finds in writing, maybe enhanced with photos and images of interesting documents. Whether you go all-out with a self-published hardback or just pass out stapled pages at the next family reunion, you’ll create a legacy—a framework others can use to understand your family’s story and the genealogical evidence you’ve gathered.

We can’t promise the project will be a breeze, but we can promise it’ll be easier when you follow these tips and use our handy organizing worksheet.

1. Know Your Purpose

Before you begin, it’s important to know what you hope to accomplish with this writing project. Do you want to summarize all your research, share your family legacy, pass down the stories Grandpa told, tell how your family fits into local history, share the story of an ancestor or family you admire, celebrate your ethnic heritage, or something else?

A strong focus makes the project more manageable, says Sunny Jane Morton, author of Story of My Life . “A small, finished project is better than a three-volume tome that exists only in your dreams.”

Need help narrowing the scope? Morton advises looking at your research for the most compelling story or interesting person. Author Sophia Wilson, who penned an 160,000-word history of her family, started her project by writing as many family stories as she could think of, then turning them into short biographies of the people involved. She wrote every day for at least 15 minutes, but sometimes for hours at a time. Taken together, those biographies served as the starting point for her project.

Alternately, you could choose a topic that commemorates an upcoming family milestone, such as your parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Or you might start with whatever is most doable.

Your audience is an important aspect of your goal. For a project just family will see, you might use a casual writing style, refer to relatives with familiar titles (“Great-grandpa Thornton”), and use in-text source information. If other genealogists will read your work in a newsletter, journal or published book, you’ll want a more authoritative style with an emphasis on your research process, and formal source citations in footnotes and source lists.

Think about your audience’s age (or level of maturity), too. Wilson recalls how her research turned up stories that might not be appropriate to a younger audience. “Instead of shifting the focus of my book, I decided that children could simply read the unvarnished truth once they were mature enough,” Wilson says. “Age-appropriate stories could be extracted and adapted for a younger audience, for whom I would also write at a lower reading level.”

“I kept coming back to what I wanted the project to accomplish (preserving and sharing memories for the younger generation) and letting that guide my decisions,” she says.

2. Make a Plan

An outline gives you a framework for building your project, especially if it involves multiple people or a long time span. Make a list of elements you want to include. Don’t worry about organizing the list yet.

Here’s an example for my maternal family history opus:

• a family tree of Mom’s family
• information about the places the family came from with a map, including why so many immigrated from each place
• names and immigration details of all the immigrant ancestors: Henry Seeger, Eduard Thoss, Mary Mairose, Thomas Frost, Edward Norris, Elizabeth Butler, Henry Hoernemann, Anna Maria Weyer, and so on.
• where these families settled in the United States, their jobs and their children
• Eduard Thoss tavern in Northern Kentucky
• info on Cincinnati Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, where so many settled
• Dierkes boys in family cemetery plot
• Henry Seeger’s cigar store, with photos and timeline, and two babies who died as infants
• Thomas Frost/Mary Wolking divorce
• Ade Thoss and the Covington Blue Sox
• possible family connection to Windthorst, Kan.
• death of Elizabeth Teipel Thoss and several of her children
• Benjamin Teipel trap-shooting invention and death
• Civil War service of Frank and Benjamin Thoss
• firefighter Raymond Norris and Newton Tea & Spice Co. Fire
• how Grandma and Grandpa met

Your list might cause you to rethink your project scope. For example, I’m seeing that I could divide up my project by family branches, breaking it down into smaller parts (and this is only part of my list).

When you know the topics you want to cover, arrange them in an order that makes sense to you. You could do chronological order, geographical order (group all information related to Germany, all immigration information, all second generation information), family branches one at a time, or some other arrangement. You could opt for a general overview then add several shorter profiles of specific ancestors or families.

Wilson shares how she thought about structure while planning her project:

One option would be maintaining individual biographies, organized in the book by birth year, generation or location. Or I could combine all biographies into a single narrative chronology, or even organize the stories by theme (women, farming, culture, etc.). I opted for the most straightforward and comprehensive order: chronological. With this approach, I gained a deeper understanding of how my ancestors’ lives developed over time, and how one event flowed into another.

Next, create an outline by organizing topics into sections or chapters. Read published family histories for examples. One of my favorites is Family by Ian Frazier.

3. Say It with Pictures

Pictures and graphs will engage your readers, help them follow complicated lineages and show what you’re talking about. “Plan as you go which pictures, documents, maps, charts and genealogical reports will best illustrate your narrative,” Morton advises.

Depending how many photos and documents you’ve found, you’ll want to winnow the options to those from key moments in your family history, selecting those that will reproduce well in the finished product. Consider adding transcriptions for hard-to-read or foreign-language documents.

Keep copyright in mind. If you plan to publish your work (including on a website), get permission from the copyright holder or owner of any images you didn’t create or that aren’t in your personal collection. For a quick read about understanding copyright laws, check out this article .

4. Get Organized and Utilize Apps

Now you’re ready to write. As you work, go over your records for families and people you’re writing about. Wilson developed a filing system that automatically sorted documents by individual. “I created a separate document for every event so I could easily insert new findings, titling each with the event, the date and the location,” she says. “I then grouped the documents into folders, one folder for each year.”

To help you organize source references, add in-text references with the title, author and page or record number in parentheses when you use information from a record, article, book or website. Also create a bibliography of sources as you go. This should include everything needed to find that source again: title, author, publisher or creator (such as the National Archives), publication date and place, website, etc.

Later, when your project is mostly complete, you can keep the in-text references, or number the references and create footnotes (short-form citations at the bottom of the page) or end notes (short-form citations at the end of a chapter). Include the bibliography at the end of your work. For help with source citations, use the book Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills (Genealogical Publishing Co.).

You might have a writing head start if you can pull together blog posts or short essays you’ve already written about your family history. Your genealogy software or online tree might offer a timeline you can follow, or even generate a narrative report for you. For an ambitious project or if you do a lot of writing, you might invest in software such as Scrivener . Additionally, writing apps can help you create an outline, organize and edit your story.

Read: How to Create a Genealogy Source Citation

5. Generate Ideas through Prompts and Research

If you’re still having trouble knowing what to write, try answering the family history writing prompts in a book such as Stories From My Grandparent or from Family Tree Magazine . These will help you flesh out ideas and take your family stories in new directions.

Revisit your research for story ideas, and let what you find in documents inspire you. Wilson consulted books (both digital and physical) about her ancestors’ location and ethnic group, as well as documents on genealogy websites like Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com. One book on Ancestry.com contained all the church records for her ancestors, some written by her great-great-great-grandfather’s best friend.

Wilson also revisited local histories and newspapers she had found early in her project. “Now that I was further in my research, I recognized more names and better understood the relationships among them,” she says. “People I had dismissed as “townsfolk” turned out to be in-laws and close friends of my lineal ancestors.”

6. Seek Out Help

Look for writers’ groups and classes in your community. From online groups to friends and family members, having a community you can rely on for feedback and encouragement is essential.

Reaching out can also lead to new research finds, important for sourcing the details in your stories. Wilson connected with other family historians, as well as genealogical societies and libraries (who scanned entire chapters of reference books for her to consult). One cousin-in-law even sent her photos and a relevant family keepsake they found on eBay.

7. Begin in the Middle

Don’t let the “how to start” roadblock stall your project right out of the gate. If you don’t know how to begin, just start writing a story you like—maybe it’s about an ancestor’s immigration, military service or venture to the wrong side of the law. The words will flow from there.

“My goal wasn’t perfection, just to get memories on the page,” Wilson says about her first step of writing family biographies. “I didn’t waste time checking spelling and grammar—that would come later.” An interesting or dramatic event is often the best way to begin a story, anyway. Remember, you’re not carving in stone: You can always rearrange things later.

8. Write Naturally

If you’re writing for relatives, pretend you’re telling your family story to a friend. If you’re writing for a publication, tailor your work to that publication’s style.

Wilson had to wrestle with how to balance facts she found in her research with storytelling. “I thought of how much I hated history class growing up—all those names-places-dates to memorize, and no story to latch onto,” Wilson says. “I resolved to … strive for historical accuracy without resorting to the dry tone of a textbook.”

9. Take Your Time

A deadline can motivate you, but give yourself plenty of time. You want this project to add fulfillment to your family research, not cause stress. Start now and work on your writing project a little at a time, once a week or every evening if you can manage it. Imagine where you’ll be a year from now.

A version of this article appeared in the December 2018 issue of Family Tree Magazine , written by Diane Haddad. Sophia Wilson’s article on the steps she took to write her family history narrative appeared in the March/April 2022 issue of Family Tree Magazine .

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Our Favorite Essays, Stories, and Poetry About Family

Reading Lists

In lieu of having our own family holidays, let's revisit some electric literature work about the ties that bind.

As we head into a holiday season unlike any other in our lifetimes, many of us will be thinking of our families, the ones that we may not be able to spend the end of the year with. Instead, spend some time with these stories, essays, and poetry about family relations.

“Pestilence” by Jonathan Escoffery

Escoffery’s short story shows us the world of first-generation Jamaican-Americans as two young brothers navigate their neighborhoods, their worlds. Fittingly for 2020, this story is about a pestilence—locusts, not viruses—but it’s also about families, how they love and touch each other, and the stories they tell each other.

There’s an alternate ending to my father’s goat story, but on this occasion, he punctuated it with unbridled laughter, and my mother slapped him with the dishtowel, saying, “You’re too cruel, man,” but her eyes brimmed with love.

“You’ll Be Honest, You’ll Be Brave” by Kelli Jo Ford

Kelli Jo Ford’s “You’ll Be Honest, You’ll Be Brave” is a ghost story, as much as it is a story about mothers and daughters. The story deals with the role reversal of a daughter having come back home to take care of the mother, and all that has changed in the home that she has left.

Lula had the seizure while she was out on one of her countryside drives, taking in scenery she’d seen a million times—probably on her way home from McDonald’s. Thankfully, she’d only run through somebody’s barbed wire fence. No one was hurt, though she was still having the seizure when a man stopped and called 911. Lula came to in the back of the ambulance and demanded to be brought home.

“I Can Only Save My Grandparents’ Home by Preserving It in Fiction” by Donna Hemans

In this essay, Hemans faces down the possibility of losing her grandparents’ home in Montego Bay. She digs deep into her grandparents’ personal history, her family’s immigrant experience, and the history of Jamaica to discuss how she’s given all of this a home within her own writing.

The fate of the abandoned house in my novel—and that of my family—is not a unique story. It is a story most every immigrant in America can tell of family land left alone too long or lingering in limbo, of migrants who had great plans to return home but who, after years abroad, find it hard to return to a place they’ve long left, a town empty of friends and family.

“Mixed” by Jessica Care Moore

“Mixed” is a poem by Jessica Care Moore that talks about lineage, and how the actions of our family stick with us. “Mixed” also showcases the theme of identity, and the importance of being true to oneself.

I pray on my great GrandFather’s feathers —the ones you don’t respect— That you never dare call me Mixed

“Why Do We Keep Telling Sister Stories?” by Tia Glista

In this essay, Tia Glista writes about how stories revolving around the dynamics of sisters have always fascinated readers. From the March sisters in Little Women to the Lisbons in The Virgin Suicides to the Kardashians, sisterhood exerts a powerful gravity on culture.With this essay, Glista explores the role that sisters have played in film and literature, and asks what role sisters should play in art.

Maybe this is what storytellers find so perplexing about sisters—that they cannot conceptualize a world in which women rely more on each other than they do on men. Where notions of female friendship, love, or solidarity have seemed too radical for our culture to grapple with, we instead access the bonds between women through sisterhood, and find an easy way to reroute women and girls back to the heterosexual, patriarchal, nuclear family.

“The Artist Formerly Known As” by Hillery Stone

Two years after Prince’s death, Hillery Stone muses on another disappearance: her mysterious and troubled cousin who introduced her to the singer’s work. Stone connects Prince’s catalog and history to her own personal and familial loss.

He was also a master of the disappearing act, the epitome of reinvention, receding and returning from rock god to mystic to sex kitten in the blink of a gold-shadowed eye. At some point, I saw Prince and I saw my cousin, not a physical likeness so much as a shared absence — a part in each of them that had existed and been taken away.

“After My Grandfather Died, I Met Him for the First Time in Poetry” by Jeevika Verma

Verma contrasts the stoic grandfather she knew as a child with the romantic, deeply emotional young man she discovers in his poetry after his death—and realizes that by teaching her to love books, he gave her the tools to get to know him through his writing.

My mother, knowing I would feel lonely and distant upon his death, pulled me aside to show me something…It was a book of poetry, which in itself was not surprising. I had graduated from college with a degree in creative writing, and had a few poems in small journals and zines. My mother must have known a book of poems would cheer me up. And it was Nanu, after all, who by turning me to books, had led me to poetry as the one friend I always turn to in times of distress.

“I’m Reading About My Mother’s Addiction Because I Don’t Know How to Write About It” by Anna Held

Alcoholism memoirs don’t exactly help Held understand her mother’s drinking—but, she says, books like Mary Karr’s Lit , Caroline Knapp’s Drinking: A Love Story , and Leslie Jamison’s The Recovering help her to give shape and structure to her family’s story, and envision a more hopeful end.

In these memoirs, relapses are absorbed in the rhythm of the story. Personal history is arranged into a structure of how things got to where they were, their undoing similarly templatized. The narratives follow identical trajectories, a characteristic that gets them panned in critical reviews but celebrated in the comment section on Goodreads and Amazon. “It feels like this book was written about me,” readers say. The drama of addiction becomes mundane, the same moment again and again. What feels acute and personal is neither. It’s just part of it, a story every addict has.

“The Neighbors” by Shruti Swamy

The narrator of “The Neighbors” is getting to know Luisa, who is new to the block. When she notices the “ghost of a bruise” on Luisa, she decides to try to reveal her own bruise, hoping that they can share their secrets with each other. 

The man put his hand on her head, right at the nape of her neck. She looked so vulnerable there, at the back of the head, with her hair so short, short like a baby’s, so close to the soft skull. His hand there was familiar to me, the gesture full of the brutal tenderness of husbands. I couldn’t see her face to tell if she was happy or sad.

“Randy Travis” by Souvankham Thammavongsa

In “Randy Travis” by Souvankham Thammavongsa, the narrator’s mother is completely enthralled with the country singer Randy Travis. This story is about how a refugee family tries to live out their American Dream, which includes trying to cross paths with the country singer whom the matriarch has grown to love.

The only thing my mother liked about the new country we were living in was its music. We had been given a small radio as part of the welcome package from the refugee settlement program. There were other items in the box, such as snow pants, mittens, and new underwear, but it was the radio she cherished most.

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My Family History Essay Example

Family history is a journey that can take many different shapes. For some, it’s the story of how they became who they are today. For others, it might be simple curiosity about their roots or where their last name came from. It could also be an investigation into family secrets and mysteries for those with a more adventurous personality.

Writing an essay on family history is really challenging when it comes to describing every important aspect of it. That is why the essay sample serves an important purpose for the students here.

Essay Sample on My Family History

• Thesis Statement of My Family History Essay
• Introduction of My Family History Essay
• How Did Our Family use to live under a Single Roof?
• What are the Values that we learn by living in Joint Family?
• Causes that Separated the Family into little pieces

Thesis Statement of My Family History Essay This essay talks about my joint family or family tree in which we used to have a lot of fun and enjoy being together. Various glimpses of this happiness of togetherness is described in the essay below. Introduction of My Family History Essay Like every other family, we have our own family history which is illustrated herein details to the readers. The essay talks about how we used to live under a single roof and we have no need to set appointments to ask our elders for dinner. These joys of togetherness bring certain values in us as well like how to be happy among the people of different nature and hope. What is the result of being in togetherness that could be found in this essay? Readers will come to know about the instances that separate us from a joint family to a nuclear family in recent times. Main Body of My Family History Essay Here a detailed description of the family history is given to let you know about the era of happiness that used to exist in our life. Each and every single detail is given in this essay for better clarity of things. How Did Our Family use to live under a Single Roof? It dates back to the days when we were small kids and our grandmother used to feed us with a variety of dishes. Every day was like a festival for us as we were not supposed to go out for school and used to sit in the vicinity of our grandmother to listen to the different stories from her. We used to dine together and no one was supposed to watch television at the time of food. This is how we were spending our days happily. My parents were also very melodious towards us and everyone who visits our home at that time was bringing some refreshments to us. Hire USA Experts for My Family History Essay Order Now What are the Values that we learn by living in Joint Family? The joint family not only gave us happiness but at the same time, we adopt many values from our elders as well. For instance, living happily and ignoring the mistakes of others is the most important feature of residing in a joint family. That is what happened to us. We never fight with each other our siblings and always used to abide by the instructions of the parents whatever they ask us to do. More patience, compromise for small things, and becoming happy in the joy of others are some important things that we gained from our family history. The roots of love between the family members could easily be traced in those days. Causes that Separated the Family into little pieces As well said by a great philosopher that every good thing comes to an end eventually similar happened in our case as well. My grandmother died of cholera and we remain behind with the parents. As our age was gradually increasing we were sent to a school where the boring routine makes us remind of the old days and then the pressure of study starts suppressing our joy of being with the grandmother. We used to miss her for the entire long day, be that in the school hours or in the evening. Even the parents fail to continue the same routine of dining together owing to their jobs and all that we find around us was chaos in life. Buy Customized Essay on My Family History At Cheapest Price Order Now Conclusion The above essay draws a conclusion that it is a very positive thing to live in a joint family as it teaches values to us. But at the same time due to time constraints and technology-driven lifestyle we cannot suppose to cope up our life in joint families. This is how the family history has been narrated and it gives us a lesson that we should do something to save the ancient culture of staying together happily.

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The above-written essay sample is based on my family history. If you need more free essay samples , visit our website and get narrative essay samples like About My Life Essay , Divorce Essay , Sleeping Disorder Essay and etc.

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The Science of Siblings

Got brothers or sisters warm sibling bonds help boost happiness as you age.

Allison Aubrey

Credit: Lily Padula for NPR

The Science of Siblings is a new series exploring the ways our siblings can influence us, from our money and our mental health all the way down to our very molecules. We'll be sharing these stories over the next few weeks.

Many of us have up and down relationships with our siblings. And those relationships can be most intense during adolescence.

I remember as a teenager all the ways my older sister reminded me she was in charge, like when she got her driver's license and insisted that I sit in the back seat when we picked up her friend, Pam, who got to sit up front. It was annoying.

But once we were out of the house in our 20s, our relationship evolved. We began to see each other as equals and friends. She still likes to take charge, though I admire her for that now because she's good at it. And somewhere along the way she became my biggest cheerleader, supporting me in my career and parenting. Our shared values and experiences have brought us close in middle age.

Turns out this bodes well for my and my sisters' emotional health. Researchers have found that a warm, close bond with a sibling in early adult life is predictive of greater resilience later in life, with less loneliness, anxiety and depression.

"I think it speaks to the salience of the sibling tie," says Megan Gilligan, associate professor of human development and family science at the University of Missouri.

Gilligan and her colleagues analyzed survey data from hundreds of participants in the Family Transitions Project , a decades' long study of family relationships. They found people who reported higher levels of warmth and connection with their sibling at age 23, had lower levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 41. "And we found the reverse, too," Gilligan says.

People who felt conflict in a sibling relationship at age 23, were more likely to report anxiety and other negative emotions at mid-life. The findings are published in The Journal of Family Psychology.

There tends to be a turning point in sibling relationships, typically around the age of 23. "The relationships shift," Gilligan says. And even though we never forget those early dynamics, the relationships tend to become more stable.

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Given all the important relationships people have over a lifetime, with partners, children, friends and colleagues, the importance of sibling relationships can sometimes be hidden in plain sight. It's easy to take siblings for granted, but Gilligan says the "clear pattern" that emerged from her research demonstrates how early sibling relationships can influence emotional well-being into middle age and beyond. "It validates the importance of these ties," she says.

Another study that examined sibling relationships in later life found the significance of these relationships endures into retirement age. When researchers studied a sample of 608 older adults, aged 65 years – on average – they found that people who reported warm relations with siblings were less lonely.

Sibling conflict was tied to feelings of depression, anxiety and loneliness. "Siblings are serving as a source of social support, decreasing these mental health [struggles]," Gilligan says.

And some bonds are tighter than others. Researchers found sisters had warmer relationships compared to those between brothers or between brothers and sisters.

Even if you're not best friends, sibling relationships can be strengthened. The key is to talk things through. Here are three tips to help.

Get your feelings out in the open.

It's easy to fall back into old dynamics, or be triggered by events from childhood. And if parents had favorites that can make the relationship harder.

Most siblings experience ups and downs in their relationships. "It's not a good strategy to let it go," Gilligan says. Instead it's best to acknowledge the past history and family dynamics and try to work through them. Just as in your relationships with friends or a spouse, our sibling relationships take nurturing and commitment.

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Blended families are common. here are tips to help stepsiblings get along, give your siblings some grace..

We tend to be more reactive with our siblings. A disagreement may take us back to the rocky relationships that are typical in childhood. But as adults, it's important to step back and see a situation from your sibling's point of view, even if that takes time and patience. "Everything looks different from different perspectives," says Ellen Lange r, a psychology professor at Harvard, who studies mindfulness. Bickering is common in close relationships, Langer says, so it's helpful to be curious about your sibling's point of view, rather than judgmental. Understanding their perspective may help you understand their choices and actions.

Establish clear lines of communication

Caring for aging parents can be a big source of conflict for grown siblings. If you haven't been in the habit of relying on each other, the growing needs of parents can require time and commitment. "The division of care is one of the biggest sources of conflict," Gilligan says. Suddenly, you may need to be in constant contact. "And the reality for most families is that it's never going to be equal," she says. One way to reduce conflict is to set up a daily text or weekly FaceTIme call to make a plan and get on the same page. Being proactive in anticipating needs can help with planning and reduce stress.

More from the Science of Siblings series:

• In the womb, a brother's hormones can shape a sister's future
• These identical twins both grew up with autism, but took very different paths
• thrive as you age
• Science of Siblings

Bruce Drysdale 5th-grade student advances to national finals in DAR's essay contest

Bruce Drysdale fifth grader Lia Martinonis has advanced to the national finals in the Daughters of the American Revolution 2024 Essay Contest, and each time her essay has advanced, her family has celebrated with a cake.

She is anxiously hoping for more cake. Martinonis is one of eight fifth-grade finalists in the nation, and so far, she's won three awards for her essay — one at the local level, one at the state level and the latest for the Southeastern Division.

"I am unbelievably proud. I have felt both shocked and pleased each time I learned that I had won," she said.

And there's prize money involved: $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place and $250 for third place. The winners will be recognized at the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Continental Congress, which is being held June 26-30 in Washington, D.C.

The topic for the contest was “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Essay writers were asked to imagine they were a newspaper reporter for The Philadelphia Times on May 14, 1897, and the newspaper's editor asked them to attend and report on the first public performance of John Philip Sousa’s new march, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” The students were to tell about Sousa’s life and the story behind the song.

Lia was with her family on April 20 in Durham to receive the state award, her mother, Andrea, said.

"This essay contest has been an incredible experience for Lia. My daughter aspires to be a writer when she grows up," Andrea Martinonis said. "This opportunity has given her the confidence to pursue that dream. Lia researched the essay subject, learned about American history, honed her writing skills, and read her speech to a large audience at the initial award ceremony. 

"As an educator, I couldn't be more pleased that DAR sponsors this contest, encouraging students to write essays and learn about our nation's past. As a parent, I am thrilled that my daughter chooses to spend her free time reading and writing and that her interests and skills are being recognized."

More: North Henderson student one of four grand prize winners in national essay contest

Lia said her teacher, April Summey, assigned the essay contest to her class.

"I remember being frustrated when drafting my essay, but now I am so glad my hard work paid off. I still cannot believe this is all happening," Lia Martinonis said.  

This part of her essay describes Sousa talking about composing his new march:

"...Sousa said that he composed the song in his head on his return to America as he grieved the death of his beloved band manager, David Blakely. Sousa said, “In a kind of dreamy way, I used to think over old days at Washington when I was leader of the Marine Band…when we played at all public functions, and I could see the Stars and Stripes flying from the flagstaff.” He also stated, “And that flag of ours became glorified… And to my imagination it seemed to be the biggest, grandest flag in the world, and I could not get back under it quick enough.”

More: Apple Valley Middle student one of four grand prize winners in national contest

Summey called Lia a phenomenal, gifted student who "always goes above and beyond."

"She thrives on a challenge and is an avid learner. Her contagious curiosity shines brightly as she lights up upon acquiring new knowledge," Summey said. "Every year, my fifth grade students work on the DAR essay. They are given a prompt and required to read multiple primary and secondary sources about the topic in order to prepare. I am very passionate about the contest, because it helps students learn history and get excited about it." 

Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at [email protected]. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.

Opinion Dogs are our greatest creation. And we might be theirs.

Tommy Tomlinson is the author of “ Dogland .” He lives in Charlotte with his wife, her mother and a cat named Jack Reacher.

The dog is humankind’s greatest invention. The wheel, the lightbulb, concrete — all amazing. Top of the line. But nothing in human creation has been as essential and adaptable as the countless descendants of the ancient gray wolf.

How did we do it? I spent three years following the traveling carnival of American dog shows — like a Grateful Dead tour with Milk-Bones — in search of the answer. My journey culminated in the dog world’s most prestigious event: the Westminster Dog Show. Show dogs are bred from the purest stock, culled from litters at just a few weeks old, trained with the dedication of Olympic gymnasts — and groomed like supermodels. They’d be unrecognizable to their ancient kin — and to ours.

The American Kennel Club, arbiter of bloodlines, now recognizes about 200 breeds, while tracking crossbreeds like goldendoodles, and even mutts. From the most massive mastiff to the tiniest teacup chihuahua, all dogs trace back to the same common ancestors.

Scientists think this weird and powerful companionship of humans and dogs might have started somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago. Humans of that era were mainly hunters traveling in camps. They ate meat by the fire. The cooking meat attracted wolves who were drawn to the aroma but stayed safely out of range of the flames. Every so often, a human would fling a bone into the darkness. The wolves gnawed on the bones. They trailed the humans to the next campsite, still keeping their distance. There was an unspoken arrangement. The wolves alerted the humans to intruders, and the humans fed the wolves well.

Over time the wolves crept closer. One fateful night a curious wolf came all the way into the firelight. The humans didn’t chase it off.

Slowly, the humans mingled with the wolves. After days or months or generations or centuries, a wolf curled up at a human’s feet. Maybe got its belly rubbed. That was the first dog.

As far as we can tell, dogs are the first animals that humans ever tamed. The wolves that hung out with humans found themselves changing inside and out. They developed shorter muzzles and smaller teeth. Their instinct to run became a desire to stay close. With time, dogs were manufactured through breeding to meet different human needs. We made huskies to pull sleds and Newfoundlands to pull fish nets and dachshunds to catch badgers.

Dogs taught humans the early science of designer genes. In the mid-19th century, as we moved off the farm and into the factory, we created dogs we could bring indoors at the end of a workday. And we created dogs we could bring to work: French bulldogs (now the most popular breed in America ) started out as literal lap dogs for lace-makers in France. We molded dogs to be friends, companions, playmates and unofficial therapists.

So dogs are not just humanity’s greatest invention but also its longest-running experiment.

That’s one way to look at it.

Now switch out the frame. Swap the subject and the object. Change the verbs.

Here’s another view:

Around the time early humans evolved, Neanderthals also walked the planet. At some point — roughly 40,000 years ago — humans started to thrive while Neanderthals died off. And this is about the time when those first curious wolves began to evolve into dogs. Some scientists believe the timing is not a coincidence. Maybe the dog was the key advantage in the triumph of humankind.

Dogs enabled humans to settle down and stop their endless wandering. Dogs protected humans at this vulnerable transition from nomadic to settled life. Dogs did work that humans did not have the strength or stamina to do: guarding, herding, hunting, pulling sleds. They created time for humans to build and think and create without having to focus every moment on the next meal or the next threat.

We domesticated dogs, and they domesticated us.

Today, dogs provide not just companionship but also an uncomplicated kind of love in an ever more complicated world. And for those restless souls wandering from town to town, chasing job after job — nomads again — a dog can be an anchor, something to hold on to on a lonely night.

From the gray wolf by the ancient fire to a coifed Pomeranian prancing around the show ring, dogs have been with us nearly as long as we have been human.

They might be our greatest creation. And we might be theirs.

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When It’s Time for an Aging Driver to Hit the Brakes

The “car key conversation” can be painful for families to navigate. Experts say there are ways to have it with empathy and care.

By Catherine Pearson

Sherrie Waugh has been yelled at, insulted and wept upon in the course of her job administering driving tests. Typically these extreme reactions happen when she is forced to render an upsetting verdict: It’s time to hang up the car keys.

Ms. Waugh, a certified driving rehabilitation specialist with The Brain Center, a private neuropsychology practice in Indiana, often works with older drivers, putting them through an assessment that measures things like visual skills, reaction time and processing speed.

“I had one gentleman, who had early onset dementia, who was just sitting here crying,” Ms. Waugh said. “His wife was out in the car and she was crying. And we all came back, and we were all crying. Because it’s so hard.”

Decisions about when an older person (or someone whose physical or mental circumstances make operating a vehicle dangerous) should stop driving are often agonizing. They can rock the driver’s sense of independence and identity, and add to the responsibilities that many family caregivers shoulder.

“It’s a major, major loss for older people,” said Lauren Massimo, an assistant professor at Penn Nursing. “It’s been described to me as dehumanizing.”

But it is important to raise concerns as soon as you have them, experts said, and there are ways to make the car key conversation less painful for older drivers and their loved ones.

Get a good look at the problem.

Before you ask a partner or parent to give up driving, do your research, experts say. Ms. Waugh, for instance, is surprised by the number of caregivers she sees who raise concerns about older drivers they haven’t actually driven with recently.

“If they need to pick up something at the grocery store, hop in the car,” she said. Take note: Are they missing traffic lights or safety signs? Are they struggling to maintain the speed limit or stay in their lane? Are they becoming confused about directions, particularly on familiar routes? Those are all signs that their driving skills may be waning.

And beware of ageism, especially when figuring out how to approach the conversation.

“It’s really not about their age,” said Marvell Adams Jr., the chief executive officer of the nonprofit Caregiver Action Network. “It’s about changes in their ability, which can happen to anyone.”

Mr. Adams suggested this opening gambit for a talk: “‘Hey, you know, I noticed it looks like your tires are getting beat up. Are you hitting the curb more often?’” His own mother made the decision to stop driving herself, he said, after she hit the gas pedal instead of the brake.

Pin the decision on someone else.

The driving conversation is one of the hardest parts of Dr. Massimo’s job as a health care provider who works with patients with neurodegenerative disease, she said. But she is happy to relieve caregivers of that burden.

“Make the provider the bad guy,” she said.

Many of Ms. Waugh’s clients come to her through referrals from primary care doctors, neurologists or eye doctors, though family members also reach out directly. She charges $175 for a 90-minute clinical assessment, and $200 for a road evaluation — fees that she acknowledged might be prohibitive for some families. (She has not succeeded in getting insurance to reimburse her clients.) But, experts say, professional driving evaluations can offer objectivity and clarity.

Ms. Waugh recently saw an older client who used to teach driver’s education and was miffed that his wife and doctor had been urging him to stop driving. During the evaluation, he struggled to finish short-term memory tests, including a simple maze and a counting exercise. When Ms. Waugh showed him his results, he finally understood that he posed a safety risk to himself and others on the road.

Have solutions ready.

Although giving up driving is rarely easy, services such as grocery delivery and ride-sharing apps can lessen the inconvenience and offer continued autonomy and independence, Mr. Adams said.

Make a plan for how you will help a retired driver get around. In addition to ride-sharing apps, the experts also mentioned public transportation and car pools, as well as friends and family members who might be able to give rides.

Consider risk-reduction strategies, too, Mr. Adams said. Maybe your partner or parent is safe to drive during the day, but not at night and not on the highway.

Even though older drivers and their family members may be loath to do it, look ahead.

“Make this a part of the conversation early,” said Cheryl Greenberg, who coaches seniors and their families on life transitions and planning in North Carolina. “You know, ‘You’re 60 years old and you’re driving just fine, but Mom, what would you do if the time came and you were less comfortable and less able?’”

All of the experts said that it was important to make space for big emotions around these conversations.

“Be empathic,” Dr. Greenberg said. “Don’t just go in and say, ‘Well, now you’re done driving.’ Listen. Ask questions that might help them be centered in the process.”

Catherine Pearson is a Times reporter who writes about families and relationships. More about Catherine Pearson

A Guide to Aging Well

Looking to grow old gracefully we can help..

Researchers are investigating how our biology changes as we grow older — and whether there are ways to stop it .

You need more than strength to age well — you also need power. Here’s how to measure how much power you have  and here’s how to increase yours .

Ignore the hyperbaric chambers and infrared light: These are the evidence-backed secrets to aging well .

Your body’s need for fuel shifts as you get older. Your eating habits should shift , too.

People who think positively about getting older often live longer, healthier lives. These tips can help you reconsider your perspective .

The sun’s rays cause the majority of skin changes as you grow older. Here’s how sunscreen helps prevent the damage .

Joint pain, stiffness and swelling aren’t always inevitable results of aging, experts say. Here’s what you can do to reduce your risk for arthritis .

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Family Guy 's Gary Janetti to Publish New Essay Collection About Adventures Abroad: ‘You’re Welcome’ (Exclusive)

The writer’s latest book delves into his experiences traveling abroad

 Benjamin Askinas, Harper

Gary Janetti is reflecting on the ups and downs of travel in a new book. The writer and producer, 58, has shared, exclusively with PEOPLE, that his new essay collection is on the way. We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay will be published this summer by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins. Janetti is taking readers on a romp through his worldwide travels in his latest publication. The writer will reflect on the “absurdity and glory” of his trips abroad, including a transformative stay at an Italian spa taken with his husband, celebrity stylist Brad Goreski , a family cruise on the famous Queen Mary 2 and a memorable dinner with Dame Maggie Smith .

The book will also feature the author’s meditations on places like Australia and Mykonos, as well as his own personal travel tips, like how to pack and get trip updates. Janetti will also dole out his personal restaurant recommendations.  Janetti is known for his work as a writer and producer on shows like Family Guy and Will & Grace . His viral Instagram captions, some of which imagined the inner monologues of Royal family members like Prince George , led to the 2021 premiere of his HBO show The Prince .

Janetti published his first essay collection, bestseller Do You Mind If I Cancel? , in 2019. The book detailed his young adulthood in New York, and his time working in a hotel. “It was the first time I was writing personally about myself, as opposed to writing through a character,” Janetti previously told PEOPLE of the book. “You have a bit of a distance — you’re protected by the [characters].” Janetti published his second essay collection, Start Without Me , in 2022.

Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Gett

We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay is poised to make the perfect travel companion, though Janetti says the book will still serve its purpose even if you’re staying home this summer.

"I spent the last year traveling and then wrote a book about it,” he tells PEOPLE of his latest collection. “Now you can go to all those places without having to leave your house. You're welcome."

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.  We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay will hit bookstores on July 9 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem defends shooting family dog that was 'untrainable.'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kristi Noem, a contender to become Republican  Donald Trump's  vice presidential running mate, defended herself on Friday against Democratic attacks over her account of shooting a dog on her family farm.

Noem, the governor of South Dakota, describes killing an "untrainable" dog called Cricket which she "hated" in an upcoming memoir, excerpts of which were first published by The Guardian on Friday. She also said she shot to death a goat.

Noem said the dog ruined a hunt and later attacked chickens owned by a local family, behaved like a "trained assassin," and was "dangerous to anyone she came in contact with."

"I realized I had to put her down," Noem writes.

The Democratic National Committee seized on the excerpts, calling them "horrifying" and "disturbing" and tried to make a 2024 election argument about the shooting of the animals.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

"If you want elected officials who don't brag about brutally killing their pets as part of their self-promotional book tour, then listen to our owners – and vote Democrat," the DNC said in a statement, giving voice to the dogs.

Responding on X, Noem said, "We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years."

Noem is on a list of candidates  being considered  by Trump to be his vice presidential running mate, friends and allies of Trump have told Reuters. Trump faces a  general election rematch  with Democratic President  Joe Biden  on Nov. 5.

Colleen O'Brien, senior director at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), decried Noem's decision to kill the dog.

She criticized Noem for allowing "this rambunctious puppy loose on chickens and then punishing her by deciding to personally blow her brains out rather than attempting to train her or find a more responsible guardian who would provide her with a proper home."