HTML Preview Process Analysis Essay page number 1.
Academic Support Center
Writing Center
The Process Analysis Essay
Resources:
OWL at Purdue; http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/process.html; freewebs.com;
wiredprof.com
What a process analysis essay is:
A process paper either tells the reader how to do something (a “how-to” essay) or describes how
something is done.
When you analyze a process, you break it down into separate steps and present those steps to your reader
in one of two ways. You can either instruct the reader on how to do something (for example, how to
change the oil in a car) or explain how something happens (how coins are minted). Both types of process
analysis will present steps chronologically, but otherwise, the resulting papers will be quite different
because the purposes of the papers differentiate fundamentally.
The purpose of instructions is to enable the readers to repeat the process successfully; having read the
paper on changing the oil in a car, readers should be able to change the oil in their cars correctly.
The purpose of an explanation is to inform readers about the process; having read the paper on the
minting of coins, readers should understand the basic procedure, but they would certainly not be capable
of minting their own money.
What to consider when developing a process-analysis essay:
To give you practice in process analysis, college composition instructors may ask you to write about a
process you know well. In such a case, select and limit your topic carefully. If a topic is too complex
(such as rewiring an old house), you cannot discuss it fully in the space of a typical writing-course paper.
On the other hand, if a topic is too simple (making a sandwich), no instructions are required. An
appropriate topic would meet all four of these criteria:
1. The process should be one you do well and often, such as a procedure that you do daily in school, on
the job, or at home.
2. The process should be suitable for its intended audience. For example, instructions on tying shoelaces
would be inappropriate for children too young to follow written instructions.
3. The process should be one whose instructions are not easily found elsewhere. For example,
instructions on making Jell-O or baking a cake mix would be useless because readers could follow the
instructions on the box more easily than they could read a paper on the process.