This document discusses describing complex processes. It notes that explaining a complex process is itself complex, as it requires attention to multiple interrelated steps or streams. The document provides advice on how to describe a complex process by breaking it down into a series of related individual actions or events. It also stresses the importance of defining the elements of the process and showing how they interact in sequences to achieve the overall process. Examples are provided on describing the process of changing a car tire in 5 steps.

1. Complex Processes
By
Aracelis Guevara

2. One of the hardest jobs for writers is describing a
complex process. In everyday life, we tend to gloss
over the complexities of things. When we turn a car
ignition, write a draft of a story, play a board game,
cook a meal, or bargain in the marketplace, we pay
attention only to the external appearances of things.
Explaining a complex process is itself a complex
process. Such an explanation requires close attention
to a number of separate streams, as well as how the
streams feed into each other. Each stream depicts a
series of events. The streams do not operate
independently. Often, the streams feed into each other.
So we have to relate the streams to each other–and to
the river–to describe the complex process. In the final
analysis, this requires mastering the art of signaling.

3.  If you can describe an action, then, you should be able
to describe a complex process. Just think of the
complex process as a collection of related actions. To
describe an action, we say, in effect: First, … Then, …
Then, … Then, … Finally, … To describe a complex
process, we describe three or four or more such actions.

4. Theelementsof
complexProcesses
 To begin any process description, start by identifying
all the pieces of the process. By naming and defining
these elements, you make it easier to explain how they
all relate to each other.
 Consider an analysis of a car transmission. As the
name suggests, the transmission is the part of the car
that transmits power from the engine to the wheels. A
slew of parts are necessary for that process, including
the input shaft,(gear shifter, shift rod, shift fork,
clutch, planetary gears, torque converter, oil pump,
hydraulic system)
 Once you’ve defined those terms, show how they
operate in a number of separate sequences. First, …
Then, … Then, … Finally, …

5. Reporting,notarguing
 A description of a complex process is a kind of
reporting job, involving careful observation. A
description of a process description does not
necessarily show what causes what. It simply lays out
what can be observed, what happens and in what
setting and in what sequence.

6. Examples

8. HowtoInstalla car
wheel.
 1. First, stop the car in a safe place on a level and firm
spot. Set the parking brake. If it is at night, turn on
the lights and emergency lights.

9. 2.Let'sgettowork.
 - After having parked the car, find the necessary tools:
spare wheel, jack, wrench and the adapter if the car is
equipped with safety bolts.
 - Then loosen the wheel nuts before lifting the car.

10. 3.Remove thebolts
andthewheel
• - Next step, once the bolts are loosened, lift the vehicle
with the jack until the flat tire barely touches the
ground, remove all the bolts and take out the wheel.
 - After removing the wheel, place the flat tire under the
car, next to the jack, to avoid damage if the jack fails.

11. 4. Nextstepisto
putonthesparetire.
 - Place the spare tire and tighten the bolts by hand.

12. 5. Lowerthecar
andtightenthebolts
 - Now you can remove the flat tire that you had placed
under the vehicle.
 - Lower the car and, when the spare tire touches the
ground, you can remove the jack.
 - Tighten the bolts with the wrench.