This is the Process Analysis essay PowerPoint...

1. Professor Diaz
ENGL 002-12
10/06/2010
By:
Damaris Skelton
Rachel Dawson
Jennifer Smalls
James Hicks II
Megan Simmons

2. Table of Contents
How Does the Process Analysis Work?
Types of Process Analysis
Writing a Process Analysis Essay: The Writer’s Eye
Writing a Process Analysis Essay: The Reader’s Eye
Sample Essay: Black Music in Our Hands by Bernice
Reagon (Revelations 71)
Review Questions for a Process Analysis Essay (1-7)
Work Cited

3. How Does Process Analysis Work?
Ever wanted to learn how to do something?
Ever wanted to learn why something works the way it does?
One looks at a process analysis when trying to answer
the questions above.
Process Analysis is a clear list of a set of
steps for a reader; can appear in a variety
of contexts with a variety of purposes

4. Types of Process Analysis
Instructional: step by step process that explains,
“how-to”
 Self help; product directions
 The Anxiety Work Book
 Children of the Self Absorbed
Informative: step by step process that explains how
a significant process works
 Attempts to inform or comment; has a broader focus
 Explaining Pearl harbor and what lead up to it

5. Differences
Informational writing
Broader focus than instructional.
Instructional writing
Usually broken down into steps.

6. Reading the Process Analysis
Essay with a Writer’s Eye

7. Style Strategy
You must ask yourself questions
while writing the process anaylsis
essay.
Intended Audience: Target
Audience

8. Style and Strategy
What is the thesis and where is it
located?
If an essay lacks a thesis, it will most
likely lack the correct and necessary
support needed to categorize an essay as
process analysis.

9. The Reader’s Eye
Audience:
 Determine how much knowledge your audience has about the process you
are analyzing
 Does my essay make sense to you?
Language Level:
Avoid jargon
 language individuals in that specific group/field will know
Excessive use of jargon is an indication the topic may be too
specialized
Voice:
 Instructional: “you”- appropriate since writer is speaking directly
to the reader
 Informational: “you” should not be used since the writer is not
telling the reader how to do something

10. Choosing a Topic
Informative & Entertaining
1.Find a Topic that’s neither too narrow nor too broad.
2.Find a Topic that interests you
3.Will your topic require research?

11. Prewriting
Instructional or Informational
Generate plenty of material before organizing essay
Free writing
Develop the preliminary thesis statement

12. Organizing
Outline
Sentence outline
Make sure outline doesn’t reveal any gaps in the
process

13. Drafting
Introduction
Body Paragraphs (I,II, III)
Conclusion

14. Introduction
Background & Context
Sets up the rest of the essay
Informational Essay
The context and larger significance of the process is
being analyzed.
Instructional Essay
The context and the importance of learning how to
master the process

15. Body
Provide the steps (specific & general) that the reader
should follow

16. Conclusion
Ask yourself what needs to be stressed to the reader
at this point.
Stray away from summarizing the essay

17. Sample: Process Analysis Essay
“Black Music in Our Hands” (Revelations: Reagon
71).
Example of an informational process analysis essay
because:
 Explains the writer’s own personal process of learning what
music represented for other people
 Explains the writer’s own personal process to understand
what music represented to her

18. Review Questions for a Process
Analysis Essay
1. First few paragraphs give sufficient background and context
for the essay
 The reader is able to get a sense of who she is as a person before the author
actually begins the process analysis.
 Student at Albany State/interests include music and biology/choir
member/singer of three different types of black music (spirituals, R & B, &
church music)/includes experiences that involve her singing
2. Thesis:
“I knew that music as a part of a cultural expression that was powerful
enough to take people from their conscious selves to a place where the
physical and intellectual being worked in harmony with the spirit”
(Reagon 71).
 The writer appreciates the influence that music can have over black people
 Music is a positive source of energy for black people; the writer enjoyed and
needed that experience

19. Review Questions for a Process
Analysis Essay
3. The writer includes steps that suggest her process:
Discovering what black music meant to her and others
 Examples given can be understood since they are all her
experiences that involved black music
 She continuously analyzed black music’s influence on people
4. In this type of essay, a reader cannot possibly say that
a step or comment does not ring true because:
 It is a personal essay with the writer’s opinions throughout it!

20. Review Questions for a Process
Analysis Essay
5. Topic Sentence was unclear
"The next level of awareness came while in jail."
6. Transitions were clear and placed where needed
7. There is an effective conclusion
The writer of the essay ties all of what she was talking about
together at the end to tell the reader that music is an important part
of lives of black people.

21. Work Cited
Reagon, Bernice. "Black Music in Our Hands."
Revelations. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Learning
Solutions, 2010. 71-73. Print.
"Process Essay." Writing Today: Contexts and Options
for the Real World, Second Edition. N.p.: McGraw-Hill
Companies, 2010. 241-71. Print.