Process analysis essay is basically a know-how guide. Its aim is to give a detailed instruction either on the questions on how to do something or on how something is done. Keep it in mind if you need to come up with the process essay ideas by your own. Don’t fall for complex operations to explain, pick rather something simple and describable. You’d better decide on the process that doesn’t require a pre-qualification to be done. For example, you can explain how to cut the video in Moviemaker or how to wallpaper a nursery.
What a process essay is you can understand if you read recipes. It is a typical example of the process description. Most of the recipes have two parts: list of ingredients and stepwise description of the cooking process. So does your essay must include these two elements: list of necessary tools and materials and a tutorial.
Let’s consider your work plan precisely.
Outline your work:
Imagine the process you want to describe. It’s better to make a topics list and evaluate the writing potential of every idea.
- Think about your readers. Are they familiar with this process or not. Whether they need some contextual explanation.
- List steps of the process. Try not just to point them out but add clarifying comments. Let’s return to the example with wallpapers. It is better to write not just “put a glue on a piece of wallpaper”, but “apply glue evenly over the surface of the paper sheet back side. Don’t try to make too thick layers”.
- It might be helpful to go through the process by yourself once again, so you could clarify its each stage. Make some notes about the nuances and need-to-notice details.
- Note the time. It will be much easier for the readers to follow the instructions when they know, how much time the process takes. So if you point out the timing, your readers will appreciate that.
- Think through the definition of the uncommon instruments, that your readers can be unfamiliar with. Don’t appeal to the professional jargon, just explain, what the tool is and how you can use it.
- Think how the result of the whole procedure should look like. Describe what result you can call successful.
Shortly: while writing the outline, you need to clarify yourself the format of your paper and its standpoints.
Write an introduction.
At the next stage of your work, you face a question how to start a process essay. Here you should remember that like any other process analysis essay has 3 main parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. What you need to do for the start:
- Present the topic. You shouldn’t start your essay right with the process description. An introduction is a good place to smoothly open your topic and draw the context. Here you should explain why you think the process is important and to whom in might be interesting.
- Prepare readers for the process. Tell how much time will be needed to finish the procedure. Here you itemize the materials, tools and supplemental resources that are necessary for it. Don’t forget to point out where to find uncommon elements or how to substitute them.
- Make sure you’ve listed everything required to prepare your audience. Sum up the preparation stage and move to the process itself.
Write the body of the essay
1. Start the process analysis. It is not that hard to write a body of the essay if you made a well-thought outline. Write about the stages you sorted out before. Don’t just list them, but make a narrative.
Do you know that humorous riddle: How to put the elephant into the fridge? The answer is:
- Open the fridge
- Put the elephant in.
- Shut the fridge.
Well, that is exactly how your essay shouldn’t look like.
2. Get into details. At every step of the process, you should explain what to do, how to do it and why. Mention not only the necessary operations but the proper technique for them. Tell also what exactly readers can see as a result of every action.
Sum it up
In the conclusive paragraph, you describe the end product and its purpose. In other words, make sure that your readers got the right idea about how the finished work should look like and what to do with it. Restate the thought you’ve expressed above on the process importance and usefulness.
Reread. Imagine that the process you’ve described is new to you. From this perspective evaluate how consistent and detailed your guide is. Add the missing points or transitions if needed.
Give it somebody to read.
When you prepare yourself for writing an academic essay, the trickiest part is to get a sense of how a good work should look like. To understand how a good paper differs from the bad one, appeal to process analysis essay examples. Read them carefully, make the notes and resume your impressions.
Practice! Look up the prompts and try to write a draft for about 10 of them.