Process Analysis Introduction

hi students this is Leah Hepburn and this is a mini audio lecture on process analysis essays so in your textbook in your patterns textbook this essay is simply called a process essay I like to call this a process analysis essay because it’s more accurate I think it reflects what the actual essay is asking you to do so if you think about the words process in the words analysis and what they mean we can come to an understanding of what a process analysis essay actually means so what is a process well the process is how something occurs or the steps in a procedure and analysis what is an analysis well to analyze something really means to break it down so we’re examining each of the parts of a whole so we have something a topic a subject we have a whole topic and we look at each part and we analyze each part we examine the parts of the whole so then putting those two definitions together a process analysis essay examines the steps and a procedure so really what this type of essay is asking you to do is to examine or investigate to explore the different steps in a process of your choice and you can choose any process that you want the essay prompt which is located in the modules on the canvas website will explain exactly what this essay is asking you to do but the basic part the part that is most important is that this essay asks you to examine the steps in a process alright so if you’ve never written a how-to essay you probably assume that this pattern is only useful for things like recipes or scientific experiments even if you have written a process essay or how-to essay you probably won’t have experimented much beyond something like how to play Monopoly or how to play baseball or something simple like that so this is actually a chance to be introduced to the possible uses and very of process writing process writing is used frequently in all disciplines really and very likely in whatever career you choose to go into you’ll actually be asked to do some process writing now you might not sit down and think oh this is a process analysis XA but really anytime you write about steps anytime you examine parts of something you’re actually writing some variety of process analysis si so if you take a look at your textbook we’re reading from chapter 9 and on the very first page of chapter 9 there’s a paragraph right by hayakawa and this paragraph allows you to actually review the difference between instructions and process explanations and the differences in person intense that these forms require you can easily see how Hayakawa would have altered the paragraph if he were giving instructions rather than explanations so taking a look at this paragraph and again I’m on page well on the first page of chapter 9 on depending on what version of the textbook you have the page number will change but there’s an example paragraph here and it says to define a word then the dictionary editor places before him the stack of cards illustrating that word each of the cards represents an actual use of the word by a writer of some literary or historical importance he reads the cards carefully discards some rereads the rest and divides up the stack according to what he thinks are the several senses of the word finally he writes his definitions following the hard and fast rule that each definition must be based on what the quotation is a front of him reveal about the meaning of the word the editor cannot be influenced by what he thinks a given were it ought to mean he must work according to the cards or not at all so this is a process explanation alright and a process explanation is different from a set of instructions down in your own process analysis essay as you have the choice to write a set of instructions or a process explanation so the paragraph read that’s in the first page of your chapter chapter nine is a process explanation and this type of essay is not for the purpose of teaching the reader how to do something but rather to help them understand how it is carried out to help them come to a better understanding of it in process explanations you can use first person or third person in the example paragraph they use third person you have two choices for tense verb tense you can use present or past tense if you use present tense this indicates that the process is ongoing so it’s habitual meaning it happens on a weekly basis or a monthly basis or a yearly basis it’s ongoing and it probably will happen again in the future if you use past tense this means that you’re talking about a specific time that this process was done so even if the process is something that’s ongoing if you’re talking about one particular time that happened then you would use past tense on the other hand we have a set of instructions so the other option for your essay is to write a set of instructions and the purpose of instructions to enable readers to perform a process so in other words to actually do something you’re giving them the tools they need to actually perform or do a process writing a set of instructions you have you don’t have as many choices for person and tense instructions are usually written in second person in other words the subject of the your sentences will be you and you’ll use the imperative mood or you’ll use commands so for instance if I say to you write an essay I am commanding you to write an essay and the understood or implied subject of that sentence is actually you so it’s understood that the subject is you making my implied sentence you write an essay and in a set of instructions we will use in the imperative mood or we’ll use commands and second-person when you use the imperative mode you generally also use present tense verbs unlike process explanations which can use present or past tense depending on the situation so this is just a brief introduction to process analysis essays there’ll be further mini lectures on process analysis coming soon focusing on the first two readings for this unit which are getting coffee is hard to do and how to decorate your room in your broker thank you