PROCESS AND ANALYSIS ESSAY
A process is a series of actions leading to an expected or planned outcome. There are two types of process essays: those that instruct or direct and those that explain or analyze. Directional process essays tell how to do something. For example, a directional process might explain how to find an apartment. The purpose of this type of essay is to clarify the steps in the procedure so that the reader can re-create the steps and the results. An informational process essay explains or analyzes a process - it tells how something works, how something happened, or how something is or was done. For example, you could explain how World War II began or how hurricanes form. The informational process essay has a purpose different from that of a directional process essay. It s main purpose is to inform, explain, or analyze. The reader is gaining an understanding of the process; he or she does not necessarily expect to be able to recreate the process.
Although process essays that explain or instruct have different purposes, they can be developed by using the same pattern of development and organization.
Planning The Process Analysis Essay
When you are planning your essay, you should bear in mind the following advice:
Be aware of the audience . When you are planning a process essay, your first question should be "What do my readers know about my topic?" Identifying the audience is important in deciding what to include and what to omit in the essay. For instance, suppose that you decided to explain how to paint a room to an inexperienced audience - people who never before painted a room. You would have to be very specific and assume that the readers know little or nothing about the process. However, if your audience is made up of professional or experienced painters, you would have to approach the assignment differently. In this case, you would probably explain a special technique that your audience may not be aware of.
In general, though, you should assume that readers know little about the topic being explained but have the same general knowledge you do. For instance, it can be assumed that most people know what a paintbrush is, but it cannot be assumed that your readers know which kind of brush is best to use with a certain type of paint.
Order the steps chronologically . Since a process paper describes a sequence of steps leading to some preconceived end, it is important that the steps be discussed in the order that they occur; in other words, the steps should be arranged in chronological order. This principle of organization is the same as the one used for narration. In a process essay, ordering ideas chronologically is vital, especially if readers are to be able to re-create the process. The only time to break from chronological order is when you explain some unfamiliar term or give some word of advice or caution.
Since process analysis essays are organized chronologically, like narrations, many of the transitional devices are used: sequence markers and adverbial clauses of time. To achieve even more coherence in chronologically developed essays, participial phrases not only make writing more coherent; they also add variety in sentence structure, thus improving the writing.
to the Top
