Writing a Process Description

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This document describes how to write a process description, a variation of the short report
designed to convey to the reader how a change takes place through a series of stages. The process description examines an event over time; by contrast, the mechanism description focuses on an object in space.

Use a process description when your intended reader wants to learn about the action in question.
You might use a process description to examine the photosynthesis of plants, the migration of animals, or the impeachment of presidents. When the reader actually wants to perform an action, write instructions instead (that is, a series of commands: "Insert tab A into slot B.")

In general, break the whole process up into smaller stages, and describe each stage in order. If
the process is part of a continuing cycle (such as the evaporation and condensation of water), say so.

Warning: If you are writing a process description for a classroom exercise, avoid
writing "helpful hints," by which I mean a collection of many details that do not need to take place in any particular order.
If neglected, pets' teeth will succumb to tooth decay. A simple process is available to all pet owners that will help in the fight against tooth decay. The process outlined will be using a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, mouthwashes, dental treats, and yearly dental appointments. This process involves both owner and veterinarian intervention.... (This author is really describing instructions for the care of a pet's teeth. The writer has almost complete control over where each element of the process goes... for instance, do you have to use the toothpaste first, and then the mouthwash? Or do you have to use the mouthwash first, and then the toothpase? It really doesn't matter; the end result is that instead of a process, we get a list of "helpful hints", without a strict chronological organization.) When your pet comes to stay at the Happy Hound Vacation Home, he will get a daily grooming and exercise ritual designed by a local veterinarian to keep him happy and healthy. Each morning, our canine guests are gently woken by your choice of music, radio station, or even a tape of your own voice! After a quick mouthwash and a bacon-flavored doggie biscuit, your pooch will be taken out in our spacious recreation area for a breath of fresh air and a few minutes of healthy exercise with an imported Italian doggie ball or a favorite toy he has brought with him....

(Despite the informal tone of this process description, the author successfully conveys the various stages in the process. While it's true that there's no logical reason why the Happy Hound workers should give the doggie biscuit before the morning exercise, this document nonetheless reflects an externally-determined order.)

It is possible to write an acceptable process description that is also a set of instructions

(such as a procedure for donning a spacesuit, or how to tie your shoe), but in order to emphasize your ability to write about a sequence of interconnected chronological events, you should pick for your topic events that take place regardless of the reader's actions.

Introduction Your introduction should be a concise paragraph that supplies a good sentence definition of the
process to be analyzed. Like any technical document, it should state the scope and purpose of the paper. Defining the process for "Acid Rain: Where It Comes From, and How It Harms the Environment"
One of the greatest environmental threats to our nation's agriculture is the growing acid rain problem. (This introduction is too general; the paper appears to be about "threats to our nation's agriculture" instead of acid rain.) Acid rain is one of the greatest environmental threats to our nation's agriculture. (While this version does properly emphasize "acid rain," it merely makes a claim about the significance of the subject. We still don't know what acid rain is.) Acid rain is environmentally harmful precipitation that forms after the combustion of fossil fuels releases nitrogen and sulfur oxides into the atmosphere.

Stating the purpose and scope of the document

This document describes the process in general terms, in order to demonstrate the necessity for increased government regulation in sensitive areas. This paper cites recent studies by Smith and Jones (1997, 1998) to assist EPA officials with their efforts to determine which parts of the country should be designated "at risk" or "potentially at risk" over the next five years.

Brief Description
In another brief paragraph (or possibly the same one as the introduction), answer the question, "How does it happen?" Provide any necessary context (who or what performs the action, and under what conditions; what is its significance?). Give a concise overview of the process. This

brief description should stand alone -- that is, it should not refer to details, facts, or terms that aren't explained within the summary. You will probably have an easier time writing this section if you save it until you have written out the complete description. Conclude this section by breaking the process up into stages: "The principle stages of writing process are planning, drafting, revising, and proofreading." Then, focus on each step in turn.

Step-by-step Description
For each step in your description, write a miniature process description:
y y y y

define the step state its purpose (or function within the process) providing the necessary context, and include brief mechanism descriptions for any components that may be involved

Divide this stage up into substages, if necessary.

Conclusion
Without being excessively redundant, review the major steps in the process. Walk the reader through one complete cycle, emphasizing how the completion of each stage contributes to the final overall effect.

Description of Processes and Instructions

The purpose of a description of a process is to tell the reader--the audience--how a process takes place or took place. If the paper describes a process completed in the past, it is a Description of a Specific Process; if it describes a process that has not actually taken place, it is a Description of a General Process. Neither of these papers intends to tell the reader how the reader should perform the process; if the intent is to give the reader the information so that the reader can perform the process, the paper is then called a set of Instructions.

Description of Specific Process

A description of a specific process will explain how a process actually occurred; because the process has already taken place, it will describe this process in the past tense. Because the reader is getting information about a past event, the description of a specific process should not use numbered steps or the imperative mood. Rather, it should be written in paragraph form using the appropriate person (depending on whether you are describing something you have done or describing something someone else has done). This type of wording would be appropriate for the description of a specific process:

Three days later the phosphorus atoms were ready, and I quickly strung together several short sections of the sugar-phosphate backbone. Then for a day and a half I tried to find a suitable two-chain model with the backbone in the center. All the possible models compatible with the B-form X-ray data, however, looked stereo- chemically even more satisfactory than our three-chained models of fifteen months before. James Watson, The Double Helix Note that the process described took place at one specific point in the past, was a onetime process and, in this case, is narrated in the 1st person.

Description of a General Process

A description of a general process will tell how a process takes place. Since it does not focus on a real process that happened in the past, this type of description of a process will use the present tense and will describe how some process is done instead how tell how a specific process was done in the past. This type of wording would be appropriate for a description of a general process: Well, let us return again to our two-dimensional world, but, instead of considering an ordinary plane surface . . . investigate the properties of the so-called "surface of Mbius." This surface, named for a German mathematician who studied it first almost a century ago, can be easily made by taking a long strip of ordinary paper and gluing it into a ring, twisting it once before the ends are joined together. . . . This surface has many peculiar properties . . . . George Gamow, One, Two, Three . . . Infinity It is evident here that the author is not discussing any particular instance of making a Mbius strip; rather, he is telling how one could be made. And, although he is telling how something could be made, he is not giving specific instructions for the reader to follow. And, the process is described in the present tense--we can "investigate the properties"; the surface "has many peculiar properties." Chapter 9 in Markel, "Drafting and Revising Definitions and Descriptions," in the Guidelines for Providing Appropriate Detail in Descriptions, on pp. 237-238, discusses providing appropriate detail in Process Descriptions. In his discussion of tense, he says to use past tense for a specific process completed in the past, (such as how the earth was formed) and present tense for describing a general process (steel making) that focuses on the process itself rather than that process at one place in space and time. As an example, one could tell how Fleming discovered penicillin at a specific time in the past (putting it in past tense) or tell how a modern drug is made now (using present tense because it is not describing a single specific instance of making the drug but how the drug is always made).

Instructions

The purpose of Instructions is to give the reader direct, imperatively phrased information which, if followed sequentially, will result in some product being produced or some process being completed by the reader. Thus, Instructions will be phrased this way:
y

Take the test tube and place it in the oven.

This sentence has as it subject the understood second-person subject "You"; in other words, the reader. And the verb tense is present, as it is in the imperative: "take" and "place." So, the reader, the "you," is being told about specific actions to perform in the present. This type of wording in typical of Instructions:
y

Be aware of varying cultural attitudes toward giving instruction. Instructions for products made in Japan are . . . .

Deemphasize trivial details. Because common objects, such as plugs on the ends of power cords, come in different shapes . . . .

Avoid culture-specific language, symbols, and references. Don't use a picture of a mouse to symbolize a computer mouse . . . .

The above instructions are part of Mike Markel's discussion of "Creating Graphics for Multicultural Readers" in the chapter "Creating Effective Graphics" in the book Technical Communication: Situations and Strategies, 7th Edition, pages 354-355 (your textbook). When the instructions contain a sequence of related events, these imperative steps will then be numbered. Markel, cited above, gives this series of steps in Chapter 7, page 142, in discussing summarizing:
1. Read the passage carefuly several times. 2. Underline key ideas. Look for them in the titles, headings, topic sentences, transitional paragraphs, and concluding paragraphs. 3. Combine key ideas. Study what you have underlined. Paraphrase the underlined ideas. Don't worry about your grammar . . . .

Notice that, although the list items state the actions imperatively (Read, Underlined, Combine), the list items also contain explanatory information. Chapter 20 in Markel has a discussion of Writing Instructions and Manuals; it gives examples of imperatively-phrased instructions, commonly found in manuals.

Components Common to All Three Papers

Introductory Elements. On pages 206-207 in Markel, in the Table giving Questions to Answers in Introducing a Description, there is list of possible elements for the Introduction of a Process Description. Your Introduction should contain the following items, at a minimum:
y

A brief discussion of the purpose of the Process or Instructions;

A vertical list of materials, equipment, conditions, or whatever would be required for carrying out the Process or following the Instructions;

A list (given in a sentence rather than in a vertical list) of the major steps (the steps into which the body will be divided, as discussed below; and

An illustration, if appropriate, of the finished product. This illustration will be appropriate if the Process or Instructions can be pictured and will be illustrated in the body. For English 303, it is a requirement that these papers be illustrated.

Subdivision. Each of these papers will have some common textual or formatting elements, as discussed below:
y

First of all, each must have a title, used as a first order heading.

Then, the paper itself must be subdivided into a minimum of three sections--the Introduction, the Body, and the Conclusion. These three sections must be defined by second order heading. In these papers, the words Introduction and Conclusion may be used as the headings for those sections; however, you should find a heading for the body that will clarify the type of content to be found-such as "process," "procedure," "major steps," or some other significant heading.

Generally, any fairly complex process should be subdivided into major steps. These major steps will then be used to create a series of third order headings for the body section. Your paper will then have these sections at a minimum:

Title of the paper -- 1st order heading  Introduction -- 2nd order heading  The Process -- 2nd order heading  First Major Division --3rd order heading  First Step -- may be 4th order heading or numbered step  Second Step -- may be 4th order heading or numbered step  Second Major Division -- 3rd order heading  First Step -- may be 4th order heading or numbered step  Second Step -- may be 4th order heading or numbered step  Conclusion -- 2nd order heading

The outline above does not give the headings as they would actually appear in your text; consult the Formatting page for material on headings. Note also that when a section is subdivided, it must be subdivided into at least two subsections. As shown above, the Major Steps section must have at least two 3rd order sections. And, each of those third order sections could also be subdivided into 4th order subsections. Graphics. With Descriptions of Processes and Instruction, graphics are particularly useful, because the reader may be asked to pick out certain pieces or envision how parts will look when assembled. So, in each of the three types of papers discussed here, it will be necessary to use graphics, each of which is labelled and numbered and referred to in the text. The discussion of Graphics (linked under the Formatting of Technical Writing Papers in the Table of Contents) gives some pointers and illustrations of the correct use of Graphics for the English 303 paper. Graphics should be handled in the following way for Instructions and Description of Processes: Show the finished product at the end of the introduction; readers need to know what they are assembling or building. Think of a cookbook, with all the photographs which accompany the recipes. Then, in the body, when you have subdivided the process into a series of major steps, use at least one graphic for each major division within the Body. Try to make the graphics dynamic; in other words, show the mechanism or object changing from one step to another, gradually growing toward the finished product pictured in the Introduction. It is important also that you maintain a consistent point of view in these graphics; if you begin with a 3/4 top view, use the same view as the object grows. The reader may be confused if the writer used 2-dimensional views of an object, especially if those views are of different sides of the object. One must remember that the subject of the process may be a piece of complicated equipment that the reader has no

knowledge of and so will not be able to depend on imagination to integrate 2dimensional views given from different angles. The final view of the product should be given as the last graphic in the body or else early in the Conclusion. Do Not end the paper with a graphic; end it with some written text. To go to the top of this page

Sentence Outline
The Example sentence outline (listed in the Table of Contents) will give a good idea of this project. It is necessary that each separate part of the outline be a full sentence, as is shown in the example. If you look at the Example outline closely, you will see the following sections: I -- a statement of the Problem II -- a list of the Criteria (A, B, C, & D.) III -- a list of the Possible Solutions (A, B, & C) IV-- a comparison of the three Possible Solutions under Criterion A from section II; this comparison must have its own conclusion. V -- a comparison the the three Possible Solutions under Criterion B from section II; this comparison must have its own conclusion. VI -- a comparison of the three Possible Solutions under Criterion C from section II; this comparison must have its own conclusion. VII -- a comparison of the three Possible Solutions under Criterion D from section II; this comparison must have its own conclusion. IX --an overall Conclusion, telling which of the Possible Solutions has been chosen as the best solution. X -- a series of Recommendations -- in a List -- for putting the Best Solution into use. Notice that each comparison section (IV, V, VI, & VII) has a separate conclusion, given as section D. Structurally, your outline will dictate the divisions of the Report and the headings to be used there. Here is how the Outline translates into the Report itself:

Outline Title--Becomes the Report Title on the title page and first page of the Report body

Roman Number Divisions -- Become the second order headings in the Report body

Capital Letter Divisions -- Become the third order headings in the Report body

Arabic Number Divisions --Become the fourth order headings in the Report body

Compare the Outline Example with the Report sections given in the material on the Long Report listed in the Table of Contents. The Syllabus lists an Outline exercise for you to do to check your expertise with arranging Possible Solutions and Criteria into a comparison which will yield an overall Conclusion. To go to the top of this page

Letter of Application and Resume

ABOUT NEATNESS AND CORRECTNESS:

One needs to go over the letter and resume very carefully to assure that it is well formatted, that the sentences structure and grammar are correct, and that words are spelled correctly. In the case of the job application, the letter and resume will probably be viewed not only as giving information about what you have done, but as being actual examples of your work. Thus, a letter or resume that is poorly done will be viewed as representing the possible quality of your work at the prospective business. Appealing letters and resumes will put you and your work habits in a good light, showing that you can communicate well and correctly; they also show that you want to work for the business enough that you will spend the time, energy, and expertise to

make yourself an appealing employee.

The Letter of Application:

The letter of application is to be written to an existing company, as if you are a graduating senior; to do so, you will have to find out which courses you will have taken by the time you graduate and generate some idea of any job experience you will have by the time you graduate. The letter should cover these areas:
y

The first paragraph should clarify the job you are applying for and the source of the information; The second paragraph should emphasize your personal qualities: such things as how you became interested in the field, your career goals, and areas in which you would like to work during your career. Overall, try to generate a picture of yourself as an individual rather than a collection of statistics to be found on your transcript. The next two paragraphs should point out highlights of your education and your work experience; discuss the one first that you will be able to develop in the most depth. In the education section mention courses that may qualify you for the job and other individual factors such as internships, problems courses, lab work, and other such areas. You might also add clubs and organizations and offices held while at college. This information is very important because it not only shows what you have done, but also the things that interest you. In the work experience section (if it is included), discuss jobs held that have a direct application to the job being applied for;for other jobs, emphasize skills that would carry over to the new job, such as communication, meeting the public, self-discipline, and responsibility. In the last paragraph, ask for an interview at a mutually convenient time and place; tell the reader how you can be reached.