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Writing the “How” Essay
When most people think of writing a process essay, they think of the more common “how-to” essay. The how-to essay is popular because readers love to educate themselves on everyday subjects such as how to cook, how to invest in the stock market, or how to find the perfect mate. However, the less popular form of the process essay, often called the “how” essay, is also useful in various situations.
The how essay typically explains how something happens, but the writer doesn’t expect the reader to perform the task being described. For example, every autumn, numerous magazine and newspaper stories explain how the leaves on the trees gradually change colors and eventually die and fall to the ground.
According to Robert Strauss, a writer for the New York Times, the green leaves of spring and summer actually contain other colors; these colors remain hidden, however, because the strong green pigment of the chlorophyll, which uses sunlight to produce food for the tree, overwhelms the lighter colors until late summer. At that point, when the temperatures begin to drop, the cool weather breaks down the chlorophyll, and the previously hidden colors — red, orange, and yellow — emerge.
