# Columbia Treatment Format: Act Breakdown



## queeryet_good (Dec 13, 2020)

Hi friends!

Finalizing my Columbia MFA Application and had a question about treatment format. Are people breaking down the three act structure  in their treatments? In other words, are you specifying "Act One:" followed by the plot points of that act, then "Act Two:" etc? Or are you just doing paragraphs?

Let me know!
-Ariel


----------



## Cody Young (Dec 14, 2020)

arieljmahler said:


> Hi friends!
> 
> Finalizing my Columbia MFA Application and had a question about treatment format. Are people breaking down the three act structure  in their treatments? In other words, are you specifying "Act One:" followed by the plot points of that act, then "Act Two:" etc? Or are you just doing paragraphs?
> 
> ...


Hello, I can't speak to what other people are doing, but I'm personally not specifying act breaks within my treatment. I don't think there is honestly enough space to justify it and beyond that, the acts would probably be clear through the story beats that you are including within the treatment. For example, Act 1 ends with a problem, so if your middle portion describes how the character deals with that problem, they can probably rightly assume it is Act 2


----------

