Posted: June 30th, 2015

Process essay

This Week’s Assignment

THE PROCESS ESSAY:

 

Your first essay assignment is a Process essay. Your paper will have a minimum of 1,000 words. Follow the format described in the Preview Lesson. Do NOT use second person!  You will send it to the dropbox indicated on this page.Your file name will be your last name_process. Of course the document itself will have your full name at the top. You will also send all essays to Turnitin.com. See Announcements for log in ID and Password.

GENERAL NOTES:

A Process essay is a description of a procedure, a step-by-step analysis and explanation of a process. Many tasks that we do every day are processes that we follow in a specific order.  We may not think about the process; we just do it. The process paper is my first essay assignment because of this; it addresses a familiar process that we currently do regularly or that you have done in the past. You are “the expert” on yourself, and the organization of the essay is governed by chronological order, so it should be the easiest essay to write for you. The process assignment allows the student to choose a familiar process, break the process into stages, and to analyze the process as a whole. You will also evaluate the process in your conclusion in terms of parts you might change, improve on, or make suggestions about.

 

I prefer to ask you to explain a process, and use expressions such as “I (or we) did this, and then I (or we) did that (first person)” as opposed to “you do this next, and you will see…(second person)”. An alternative writing style and one that is more sophisticated would use third person, “the next step in the process is to….”. If you are unclear as to what first person, second person are, please see the PERSON info in the Preview Lesson.

 

*** NEVER, EVER use second person in an essay for me!!  Set your computer to find and destroy all uses of “you,” “yourself,” and any other similar form of the word. See PERSON section in Preview Lesson for alternatives. It is also second person to say, “First, drain the oil from the car; then, make sure to….” 

 

PICKING A TOPIC:

 

In my class, your Process essay topic can be about anything you do currently or did in the past that can be broken down into stages or steps, so your imagination is the limit. Whatever you choose, do try to be as specific as possible. Contrary to what you may think, being overly general causes papers to be too short, and being specific helps them become a more proper length because the details are concrete and easy to describe rather than vague generalities.

 

SUGGESTIONS FOR PROCESS TOPICS:

 

1) Instruct the reader on making a fairly complex recipe (but don’t just give the recipe; fill in on how you came to learn this, why it is special, when you serve it, and so on. Recipes alone are boring.)

2) Instruct the reader as to how you perform a specific task at work

3) Recall the preparations for a big specific event in your life, such as a wedding, reunion, holiday celebration, graduation, birthday party

4) Illustrate the job, military, or college application procedures

5) Teach a hobby, craft, or home improvement project that you’ve done, such as refinishing furniture, painting the house, making a garment or piece of jewelry, changing the oil in the car…

6) Describe a trip you took if it involved several stops or phases

7) Describe the stages of learning to drive or ride a horse

8) Serving on a jury (stages from getting the notice to the final verdict)

9) Describe the steps involving computers or putting something together

 

AUDIENCE:

Your audience is your reader. Keep your reader (me) in mind, and assume that I know nothing or very little about your topic. Therefore, you must define any terms I may not be familiar with. Don’t assume that I am an expert in computers or in any other subject. Clarify your descriptions so that any reasonable person would understand your meaning. Do not instruct me on how I can perform the task you have done. Rather, explain how YOU did it.

 

WRITING STYLE and ORGANIZATION:

This is not a diary or journal exercise. It is not a narrative or story. Therefore, it must describe a procedure that can be broken down into steps or stages. I suggest that you should try to organize your topic into three main categories, which will make up the three body paragraphs of the essay. Within these three paragraphs, steps within them can be included. When you are organizing, first make sure your thesis statement is written correctly (that info below). The thesis should immediately lead to the three divisions you make for your body paragraphs. Make sure that each paragraph then has a suitable topic sentence that outlines that stage of the process. Check the info on thesis statements and topic sentences before you write your final draft of your essay. One of the dangers of this type of essay is to write a topic sentence that is too narrow or limited. For example, if your topic sentence is “Next, I wrote a resume,” that body paragraph can discuss ONLY writing the resume. You cannot switch the subject matter in the middle of the paragraph and begin discussing how you contacted employment agencies or how you phoned for interviews.
The organization of a five paragraph process essay should look like this:

Introduction paragraph

Stage one paragraph

Transition, stage two paragraph

transition, stage three paragraph

{any other stages if necessary}

transition, conclusion

Each body paragraph will be one step in the process, and various sub-steps should be explained within each body paragraph. Be sure to use transitions to tie steps and sub-steps together: to act as bridges so that your writing flows more smoothly and coherently. Most of the transitions will refer to time because the process paper analyzes steps of a process in time: first, second, third, next, then, soon after, later, last, finally, and so on. A body paragraph should have a minimum of five sentences, so avoid having them be too short.
INTRODUCTION:

 

First, always remember that the thesis statement of your essay is the LAST sentence in your introductory paragraph. It is the most important sentence of your essay, so a great deal of thought goes into that sentence. All of the ideas you present in your body paragraphs must flow from that sentence, and in many ways, your thesis controls your conclusion as well. Here are some good examples that indicate a process essay will follow the thesis given (process terms underlined). Caution: A thesis statement is not like making a speech.  Do not “announce” or “talk” to the reader as in the following examples of bad writing: “In this essay, I will explain…,” “As I mentioned above…,” “As I have shown…,” “I have chosen to write about…,” ” the above reasons,” and so on.  THIS IS IN YOUR TEXT. Also, never use the following expressions: “I think,” “I feel,” or “In my opinion.” It is better to state your opinions as facts than using “In my opinion.”  I will have these on a General info page as well. If you are somewhat creative, you can begin with a creative introduction such as the one that follows this paragraph. Even if you aren’t especially creative, your thesis statement must set the tone for the rest of your essay. It must have a subject and a comment about it.

 

SAMPLE CREATIVE INTRO:

 

This intro is in the descriptive style, but it work as an interest-getting device for a serious topic.

The rain pours down as if running from a faucet, lightening streaks across the dark restless sky, and thunder piunds the roof and walls of the house.  All of a sudden, the wind kicks up. Trees sway madly back and forth; loose objects are picked up and thrown all around. The house creaks and moans with every gust of wind.  Windows are broken by pieces of shingle from a neighbor’s roof or by loose objects picked up by the wind.  Power lines snap like thread. The unprepared house and its occupants are in grave danger as the awesome hurricane approaches. Had they prepared for the hurricane, they might not be in such danger. Indeed, careful preparation before a hurricane is essential to life and property. (taken from Refining Composition Skills by Regina Smalley and Mary K Ruetten, Macmillan Publishing Co., 1975).

 

SAMPLE THESIS STATEMENTS:

 

1. (General introductory material comes before the thesis)…Once those decisions have been made, the difficulty of learning all the steps involved in diaper changing comes: preparation, procedure, and clean-up.

2…There are many delicious shrimp recipes. However, I enjoy preparing a French appetizer called “Shrimp Bordelaise.”

3…The actual process of preparing a bowl of cereal is not difficult; what is hard is selecting what I want.

4. …to maintain a healthy, attractive, and happy Shih-Tzu, a regimen of weekly grooming is required. (Regimen indicates a process, something repeated)
5. …To make this popular “Y” shaped necklace, several easy steps must be followed.

 

IMPORTANT!!!: Remember, all of your body paragraphs’ topic sentences must flow from the thesis statement, so pick a thesis statement that is broad enough to cover all of your stages in your process. For example, I had a lady who wrote about her daughter’s birthday party and wrote her thesis like this: “After selecting the theme, the next step was to prepare the food.” Then, the entire essay must be about the food preparation. No other topic, such as the games, the location, or the invitations could be mentioned, so she painted herself into a corner and ended up put of the boundaries of her thesis statement. Therefore, if she had wanted to discuss those issues, she could have written:

After selecting the theme of the party, preparations focused on planning the invitations, the games, and the food. (Also notice that active verbs such as preparations focused on planning is better than the next step was. To be verbs are usually boring.)

 

That gets in all of the ideas and gives her room for including them.