Warm-Up for Process Essays

A process essay leads readers through a series of steps for getting something done. This lesson will help you think about different processes and which ones you might explain in an essay.

What Is a Process?

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A process is a series of steps for getting something done. For a bird, building a nest is a process. For a bee or a squirrel, gathering food is a process. And for a student, writing a process essay is, itself, a process.

What processes do you know how to do? What processes could you explain to others?

When you write a process essay, you explain how to do something or how something works. Each paragraph in your essay focuses on a step in the process. The sentences follow time order, leading the reader from start to finish.

Process writing helps you get the job done!

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Thinking About a Process

Most things don’t happen all at once. They take steps to finish. Even something as simple as shooting a free-throw:

Stand at the free-throw line.
Get the ball from the ref.
Focus on the basket.
Line up the shot.
Shoot the ball.
If you make the first shot, repeat the process.

You can organize the steps of a process by making a numbered list like the one above.

Time Line

You can also make a time line to put steps in time order. Start each line with a time-order word, and give the step.

First	Stand at the free-throw line.
Second	Get the ball from the ref.
Then	Focus on the basket.
Next	Line up the shot.
After	Shoot the ball.
Finally	If you make the first shot, repeat the process.

Choose a process you can do.

Write down something you know how to do.

Take care of a hamster

Organize the steps.

Create a numbered list or a time line. Make a copy of this Google doc or download a Word template.

Numbered List

Go to buy a hamster.
Pick out and set up a cage.
Feed and water your hamster.
Hold your hamster to gain trust.
Make mazes for your hamster.
Show off your hamster to your friends.

Time Line

First	Go to buy a hamster.
Second	Pick out and set up a cage.
Then	Feed and water your hamster.
Next	Hold your hamster to gain trust.
After	Make mazes for your hamster.
Finally	Show off your hamster to your friends.

Teaching Tip

Help students understand that a list and a time line are two different ways to organize the same material. They do not have to generate both. Also, help them realize they don’t have to have six steps in their processes.