Writing About a Process

Giving instructions may be as simple as telling someone how to get from one place to another or showing someone how to cook a delicious dish from your native country. On the other hand, you may be asked to explain a more complex process. Your history teacher may ask you to explain how ancient farmers prepared their fields, or your biology teacher may want you to show how blood flows through the body. In giving directions, the reader may actually perform the process; in con­trast, when you explain some processes, you do not expect the reader to try to carry them out. Both types of essays, however, involve describing a process completely and in orderly steps.

Several hints can help you write a good process essay.

First, consider your audience. How well acquainted is your reader with the topic? How detailed must you be? How much can you take for granted? Is there special vocabulary that you must explain? For example, you may have changed the oil in your car dozens of times, but if your mother has decided to try her hand at this process, you had better include every necessary step in the process when you explain to her how to do it.

Second, include all of the steps of the process in the correct order. Nothing is more exasperating than being told the steps in a process out of order. Imagine reading a recipe that told you to add three eggs to your mix­ture. After doing this, imagine that the recipe later says to separate the yolks from the whites and beat the egg whites before adding them. You would have to throw out all of your ingredients and start over.

Next, remember to give the final step in the process. Do not take it for grant­ed that the reader will infer the correct final step. An anecdote may help emphasize the importance of this: A government worker once called her husband, who was already at home, to tell him that she was leaving her office and to ask him to put a casserole into a preheated oven. Her sub­way car subsequently broke down on the way home, delaying her in an underground tunnel for over two hours. The moment she walked into her apartment, she smelled the strong odor of burning food. Hurrying to the kitchen, she found her casserole still in the hot oven and the food burned beyond recognition. "Why didn't you turn off the oven?" she asked her husband. "You never told me to turn it off" was his reply. Don't let this happen to you! Be clear in giving the important last step.

Finally, use appropriate verb forms. When you write instructions, you usually write in the imperative: "First, get out the ingredients; then, cut the carrots into small pieces; next, put them into a saucepan." Sometimes instructions are written in the present tense, using the subject you: "First, you get out the ingredients," etc; or modal verbs are used: "Then, you must cut the carrots into small pieces." In essays that explain a process, the third person active or passive verb is used: "Ancient farmers first cleared fields of trees or shrubs before planting; fields were marked before seeds were planted." Remember that whatever verb form you select should be appropriate to the type of essay and used consistently throughout.

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