Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Rinse toothbrush
2. Remove toothbrush from holder
3. Wet toothbrush
4. Rinse mouth
5. Brush teeth
6. Put toothpaste on toothbrush
7. Put toothbrush in holder
(2,3,6,5,4,1,7)
Follow Steps in a Sequence
How-to Essay
You encounter how-to instructions often in your daily life—in instruction
booklets, recipes, or lists of directions, just to name a few examples. In a
how-to essay, you explain how to do or make something. You break the
process down into logical steps and arrange those steps in the right order for
your reader to follow.
A successful how-to essay should explain its topic fully arrange steps in
proper chronological order provide clear explanations of any terms or
materials that may be unfamiliar to readers include charts, illustrations, or
diagrams as necessary to clarify complicated procedures
Considering Your Audience
How-to essays have a clearly defined purpose –
to explain the steps of a process or provide help
in using a product. However, they can have
many different audiences, or potential readers.
Identify your audience and consider how it will
affect your use of language and choice of
details.
Complete an Audience Profile
To help you identify and address the needs of your audience, create an audience
profile, a note card with information about your audience that you can refer back to
as you write. Following are questions to consider in creating your audience profile:
1. Knowledge Level – How much does
my audience know about the topic?
Do they need a little or a lot of
information? What terms will I need
to define?
2. Age – What is the age of my
audience? If you are writing for
younger children, use simple
vocabulary. If you are writing for
adult readers, use more sophisticated
terms.
3. Skill Set – What skills do my readers
have? Does my audience understand
the basic skills required for the
process I am explaining? Should I
review those skills as well as cover
the specific steps of the procedure?
Drafting
SHAPING YOUR WRITING
Before you begin writing, organize your details. Because most how-to
essays describe a process that takes place over time, chronological order
is often the most effective organization.
PROVIDING ELABORATION
Whether you are writing a letter of complaint or a short story, the details
and explanations you include can improve your writing. Add facts,
descriptions, and details to help readers imagine the action or understand
the ideas you present. The SEE method is one of many strategies that can
help you strengthen your writing.
The SEE Method
Using the SEE Method You strengthen your writing by providing greater depth of
information when you use the SEE method—Statement, Extension, Elaboration.
Start with a statement of the main idea. Then, write an extension by restating or
explaining the first sentence. Elaborate further by providing even more detail about
the main idea. Think of the SEE method as a way to shed more light on your
subject:
STATEMENT: After a long day, Andy was finally ready to leave.
EXTENSION: At nearly eleven o’clock, he cleared his desk and grabbed his
keys.
ELABORATION: As he walked out the door, he waved to the night watchman and
headed into the deserted parking lot.
APPLYING THE DRAFTING
STRATEGIES
Write an interest-grabbing lead for a description
of a busy train station.
Complete the sentences below. Then, using the
SEE method, elaborate on each one.
1. My favorite season is __?__.
2. __?__ played an important role in history.