Processes

                            Everything is a Process, Including Writing

         Just about everything in life is a process. Life itself is a process, from birth to death, with many steps and stages along the way. Formal education is a process, from first grade or Kindergarten to high school or college graduation. Brushing your teeth is a process. Registering for a class is a process.  Going to the Etiquette Dinner at Ivy Tech on December 3rd is a process, from finding out about the event from an announcement in class and a flyer, deciding to go, going to the Bursar's office to buy a ticket, and then going to the event on December 3 at 6:00pm to eat a delicious dinner and enjoy the company of your friends, instructors, and other Ivy Tech students. Good writing is a process. In this class, we are learning how to write for academic purposes. With the paragraphs and essays that we write in class, we follow the writing process. Good academic writing, like all writing, begins in the mind, with thinking and planning, organizing those thoughts on paper in form of an outline, writing a first draft, receiving feedback and comments on that draft, going to the Learning Resource Center to make an appointment with a writing tutor to help you and give you feedback on improving your writing,  and then writing a final draft, making changes so your writing will be as good as possible, in both content, organization, and format. In conclusion, we  see that everything in life is a process, including those important things that we learn in college, like the writing process, which will help make us more successful in college and in our professional lives. 

Everything's a process

     As I have been thinking more about writing about processes, it occurs to me that almost everything we do or make, or anything that happens in the world, is a process. Think about it. Brushing your teeth. Going to work. Fixing a flat tire. Getting a college degree. Getting married. Going on a vacation. A snow storm. The waves of water on the beach. These are all processes, some more complicated than others. They all involve steps, or stages, in a certain order, from beginning to end. Can you think of anything that isn't a process?

Writing Basics: Process writing

Process writing is an important type of writing used for different purposes: how-to manuals, describing how to do or make something, processes and procedures. In process writing, you write about steps in chronological (time) order. Many things you might purchase that require assemmbly will come with assembly instructions; this is process writing. When you buy a new car, it will come with a User's Manual, which describes how to operate the car and how to fix little things that don't work.

Whether it is a paragraph, recipe, essay or manual that you are writing, you will use process writing. As always, you will begin with an introduction, then describe the things (ingredients, utensils, tools, parts, etc.) needed, and then describe the steps to the reader or user. You fill use signal words, like first, second, third, before, then, after that, finally, to help the reader follow the steps of the proces you are describing.

This is an important type a academic writing and many types of professional writing. Imagine writing a report on the steps and results of a chemistry experiement, or of how to operate a new machine in a work shop. Process writing.