Posted: October 1st, 2013

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.

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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.

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
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