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Process
A process paragraph describes the requisite steps, stages, or phases in
a given process. Often this involves ordering details chronologically: most
processes occur over time. A process paragraph has one of two possible purposes:
either to instruct the reader in how to perform a particular task
or to assemble or construct a given object, or to inform the reader
about a process that enquiring minds would be curious to learn about.
In an instructional process paragraph, each step of the process
is adequately described and the whole sequence of steps is logically ordered
from start to finish. By following the steps you have outlined or the
procedures that are explained in detail, the reader should be able to
reproduce your results. In the following brief paragraph, science writer
Caroline Abrams gives specific instructions for the process of extracting
DNA from a banana:
Be
it brain or beetle or even broccoli, the steps for extracting
DNA from organic tissue, human or otherwise, are essentially the
same. With a teacup, measuring spoon, salt, water, cheesecloth,
liquid detergent, meat tenderizer, rubbing alcohol, and a clean
jar, harvesting genetic material from a banana, for example, takes
only minutes. Dice the banana, add it to the teacup with a teaspoon
of salt, mash until smooth with one tablespoon of water and all
the fruit's cells separate from one another. Strain the mixture
through the cheesecloth over a jar and add a teaspoon of detergent
to the liquid, stirring carefully so as not to create bubbles.
Let it stand for five minutes and the soap dissolves the fatty
casing around each cell and the shell around the nucleus within.
Add a few dashes of meat tenderizer and stir gently, allowing
its enzymes to literally cut through the remaining proteins of
the membranes lie a pair of scissors, leaving the DNA floating
and exposed. Tilt the jar to drizzle an equal part of rubbing
alcohol down the side and it will form a liquid layer over the
surface of the heavier banana juice. The remaining proteins, fats,
and sugars sink to the bottom. The white stringy clumps of DNA
rise to the top, ready to be skimmed.
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When you write an informational process paragraph you try to
satisfy the reader's curiosity and interest. You might describe
a biological or natural process or you might explain how something is
done or made. The key to writing a good informational process analysis
is providing sufficient and interesting details. In the paragraphs below,
noted author James Houston explains the process of traveling by dog sled:
When
you travel by dog team with Inuit, it is smart to leave the decisions
entirely up to them because they know all about what they are
doing in this strange harsh world of theirs, and you do not. A
day's travel, which may start at 6:00 a.m. in early spring, may
go until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m., with only a brief break for noonday
tea and a hardtack biscuit while untangling snarled dog lines.
Once we get them hitched up and under way, the dogs act somewhat
predictably. On the trail they do their jobs, but all too often
they tangle their traces while they hop over to visit or fight
with various other characters holding strong opinions in the team.
You might suddenly notice another dog team track
converging into the trail you have been following. The teams stop
to sniff it, yellow it, grow excited and alert. Then another track
cuts in. You feel that you are traveling on a highway. Even though
it might be the end of a long day, the dogs raise their heads,
curl their tails. When you thought they hadn't any kind of spunk
left in them, they run on, as lively as a gang of kids on their
way to a party. . . .
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