A "how to" essay or speech is one where the writer or speaker explains, step by step, how to complete a task. Sometimes these assignments are known as demonstration speeches or essays or demonstrative speeches or essays.
This may sound like an easy assignment, but it's not! In order to use the written or spoken word to explain how to accomplish a task, a writer or speaker needs to think carefully about the best strategy for teaching this task. Here are some tips for writing a "how to" essay or a "how to" speech.
Choosing a "How To" Topic
As is the case with all essays and speeches, one of the most difficult parts of writing a demonstrative essay or speech is choosing an appropriate topic. A good topic is one that the writer or speaker will be able to discuss without too much difficulty, and one that makes it easy to fulfill the basic purpose of the assignment. Here are some tips to keep in mind when choosing a "how to" essay topic:
- Choose a topic that the writer or speaker is already quite familiar with. If at all possible, he or she should already know "how to" do the task at hand.
- Choose a "how to" task that isn't all that easy or familiar to most people. If it's too easy (like "How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich"), the reader or listener isn't going to learn anything.
- Choose a "how to" topic that isn't impossible or improbable for most people to accomplish. "How to Eat on the Space Shuttle" is a very interesting topic, but how many people actually need to know how to accomplish this task?
- Choose a "how to" process that isn't too complicated to explain. When it comes to giving instructions to someone, simpler is almost always better! Although it's important not to make the "how to" process too simple (like "how to fold a towel"), err on the side of simplicity.
Here are some suggestions for choosing a topic for a how-to essay or speech.
The How to Step-by-Step Process
The main body of a demonstrative essay or speech consists of step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish a task. Before writing, it's important to sit down and think carefully about what specific steps are needed to complete this task. Then, compile a list of the necessary steps. After doing so, fill in each step with information on how to complete it.
There are a few important points to remember when constructing these steps. First, be careful not to skip any steps. If the writer or speaker is very familiar with the process in question, it's easy to forget to include a step that a novice wouldn't automatically think to do. It's also common to accidentally combine multiple steps into one step. To avoid this common problem, the writer or speaker should run by their work by several people who are unfamiliar with the process.
Second, it's important to describe each step as clearly as possible. When describing the steps, it's very important to avoid jargon, or words that people with specific interests or knowledge knows, but that the general public does not know. Take the time to write out each step in a manner so that someone with no previous knowledge will be able to complete the step successfully. Again, a helpful way to accomplish this is to run the speech or essay by several people who are unfamiliar with the process.
Finally, it's important that a "how to" essay or speech be very well organized. If readers or speakers can't easily follow along, they certainly won't learn how to do the process. Be sure to include a clear introduction and conclusion, along with steps that systematically describe the process without going off into a tangent. It's useful to include transition phrases that signify breaks between steps, such as, "Now that I've shown you how to insert the lever into the thingamabob, the next step is to adjust the temperature of the thingamabob."
How to Write a How to Speech or Essay
Because teaching someone how to do something is always a challenge, a writer or speaker needs to put some thought into how to put together an effective "how to" essay or speech. Be sure to locate an appropriate topic, and then take the time to make sure the steps are described as clearly as possible. With solid instructions, the readers or listeners may very well learn how to accomplish the task at hand.
Naomi Rockler-Gladen - Instructional designer and freelance writer, Naomi Rockler-Gladen writes some of Suite101's most read work.
