Writing a Process Essay

Process essays are one of the most popular assignments in universities and colleges. The key goal of such essays is to see if students understand a particular process including all its stages, details and logics behind it. When writing a process essay, a student has to identify and allocates a certain process, while not missing the details of the described process. Therefore, the main goal of this type of essay is to characterize the process in such a way that leaves no questions to the readers of the paper. In order to write a decent process essay, one has to understand its stages.

The Stages of Writing a Process Essay

Writing a process essay requires concentration and thoughtful approach, because strong attention to each detail is necessary. The first challenge that the author faces is the necessity to explain the importance of the process, which is being analyzed in the essay. The second one is the author should go on to explain the effects that the described process has on people and objects. Last but not least, it’s crucial to give all the necessary information about the process so that the readers understand the sequence of actions and scope. To give a process essay a logical structure, the author needs to define the number of steps included in the process along with difficulties that could accompany these steps.

The Structure

A process essay has a general structure length of which depends only on the number of stages included in the process. The introductory part should highlight the main goal that the researched process aims to achieve. It shouldn’t include specific characteristics and details as they should be revealed later in the essay. An introductory part should also mention the meaning of the described process in the daily life. This will instantly make readers interested in case when the topic resonates with them. The length of the next part with the body paragraphs depends on the quantity of steps involved in the process. Each stage of the process should be described in detail and the logic behind performance of each stage should be explained in a way that readers can comprehend. It is also important to mention difficulties associated with each stage. The final part of the essay – conclusion, should show the results of the procedure and reveal its general importance.   

Final Steps

While content of the process essay is important, students should also take into consideration the formatting of the essay. Process essays should be formatted in MLA, APA or Chicago/Turabian style. Formatting of the paper depends on the peculiarity of assignment, the selected topic and the subject area. No matter which style is chosen for the process essay, it’s crucial to follow this style throughout the entire essay. Finally, when working on this type of essays, students should pay attention to each part, because all of them are equally important. From selecting the process to editing of the essay and creating a citation page, you should be very attentive to details.