Analysis of Process Writing
Process Analysis
THE STRATEGIES
The process-analysis essay is an elementary but essential writing strategy. Most teachers prefer to teach it as the first expository form because all students have had experience giving and following directions and because composition students can use the skills that they have already studied in narration and description to explain the stages in a process. Like the chronology of events and the pattern of details, the stages in a process provide a plan for the process-analysis essay. Indeed, most students suspect that if they write about a process that has established stages—“how to fix a flat tire”—the essay will write itself. Students soon discover that drafting a set of clear and logical directions is not as simple as one would assume. The chief advantage of teaching the process-analysis essay is that the class can often test written instructions against the process they propose to explain. For example, ask a few students to analyze a common procedure—finding a book in the library or typing a paper on a word processor. If they omit steps, reverse steps, or fail to explain the use of basic tools, your other students should be able to detect such errors, thus demonstrating how defective instructions do not produce the intended results. Such demonstrations will prepare students to understand the purpose of the information contained in the introduction to this section. Writers must examine their purpose and audience to understand why they are analyzing a process and whom they are analyzing it for. The sample paragraph from Henry Petroski’s “The Book on the Bookshelf” makes a painstaking analysis of the seemingly simple problem of replacing a book on a bookshelf after its space appears to have changed dimensions.
THE READINGS
Each essay in this section illustrates the use of these essential strategies. Sara Temple describes the process of purchasing stained glass tools in a way that all readers can follow, offering definitions
THE STRATEGIES
The process-analysis essay is an elementary but essential writing strategy. Most teachers prefer to teach it as the first expository form because all students have had experience giving and following directions and because composition students can use the skills that they have already studied in narration and description to explain the stages in a process. Like the chronology of events and the pattern of details, the stages in a process provide a plan for the process-analysis essay. Indeed, most students suspect that if they write about a process that has established stages—“how to fix a flat tire”—the essay will write itself. Students soon discover that drafting a set of clear and logical directions is not as simple as one would assume. The chief advantage of teaching the process-analysis essay is that the class can often test written instructions against the process they propose to explain. For example, ask a few students to analyze a common procedure—finding a book in the library or typing a paper on a word processor. If they omit steps, reverse steps, or fail to explain the use of basic tools, your other students should be able to detect such errors, thus demonstrating how defective instructions do not produce the intended results. Such demonstrations will prepare students to understand the purpose of the information contained in the introduction to this section. Writers must examine their purpose and audience to understand why they are analyzing a process and whom they are analyzing it for. The sample paragraph from Henry Petroski’s “The Book on the Bookshelf” makes a painstaking analysis of the seemingly simple problem of replacing a book on a bookshelf after its space appears to have changed dimensions.
THE READINGS
Each essay in this section illustrates the use of these essential strategies. Sara Temple describes the process of purchasing stained glass tools in a way that all readers can follow, offering definitions