11. The PROCESS Paragraph

The Process Paragraph

A process involves linear relationship.  We think of processes as moving forward in a logical, step-by-step-sequence one step takes you into the following step, and so on, we can’t bake a cake without having mixed the ingredients previously.  A process can usually be presented as a flow diagram.  See the next example:

Teacher questioning	Step 1: Teacher asks question
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	Step 2: Pupils raise hands
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	Step 3: Teacher selects pupil to respond
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	Step 4: Pupil responds
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	Step 5: Teacher reacts to response

Water purification

The provision of safe water necessitates one of the greatest expenditures of manpower and revenue in our modern cities. The purification of water is basically a two-step or three-step process carried out under the strict supervision of public health scientists and engineers. As the first step, natural water from the least contaminated source is allowed to stand in large reservoirs, where most of the mud, clay, and silt settle out; this is called 'sedimentation'. Often in water with high mud content, lime and aluminum sulfate are added to the water in the settling reservoirs. These chemicals react in the water to form aluminum hydroxide, which settles slowly and carries much of the suspended material, including most of the bacteria, to the bottom of the reservoirs. As the second step, the water is filtered through beds of sand and gravel, which remove other impurities and chemicals in it. During or after filtration, antibiotic chemicals are ordinarily added to the water to kill any remaining harmful bacteria. Chlorine is one of the most common chemicals used for this purpose. A third step taken by some municipalities is adding to the water other beneficial chemicals such as fluoride to make tooth enamel hard, and soda ash to make the water itself soft. The water purification process, carried out with little variation from one large city to another, is perhaps the biggest factor in the prevention of major outbreaks of disease in this country.

Analyze the paragraph above, underline the topic sentences and the terminator, then, identify the discourse markers used. Outline:

Menudo recipe

Mexico has a lot of delicious and typical dishes; the menudo is one of them, especially in the North of the country.   This is an exquisite plate, and if you want to prepare it, you must follow some specific steps.  Firstly, you have to wash very well the meat called “menudo”.  Secondly, you need to put on fire some water in a wide container.  When the water has approximately ten minutes in the stove, you put the meat in the water.  Thirdly, you should wash an onion and put it in the water and add some garlic.  The onion and the garlic give a lot of taste, but when the menudo is finished, you have to take them out.  After all this, the menudo must be boiling for some time until the grains are bland.  Finally, you can put salt (the amount you want), shopped onions, lemons and a red sauce before you eat it.  So the last thing you have to do is to eat some plates, and then…. more plates.   

Outline:

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT – PROCESS paragraph

Write an outline FOR A PROCESS PARAGRAPH.   AFTER WRITING YOUR OUTLINE, START DEVELOPING YOUR PARAGRAPH.

You can use the following discourse markers to introduce the steps.

FIRST STEP	MIDDLE STEPS	LAST STEP
First, Firstly, To begin with, Initially, as the first step	Second (ly), Third (ly), as the second step, Next, Then, Subsequently, After this, Before this, At the same time	Lastly Finally

Outline the PROCESS paragraph (USE ONE IDEA)

	Topic sentence:  The process of _____________________ includes 4 main steps.
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
	Conclusion:

WHO IS WALT WHITMAN?

WRITE A PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING HOW YOU THINK THE PROCESS TO WRITE A POEM MAY BE.



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