The study examined the effect of process and product methods of teaching essay writing on students’ ability to generate ideas for topics in Senior Secondary Schools in Port Harcourt and Oyibo Local Government Areas of Rivers State. A pretest-posttest non-random and control group design was used for the study. 6706 Senior Secondary School (male and females) constituted the population of the study. 149 Senior Secondary Students from the four intact classes in the sampled schools were sampled for the study. An Essay Writing Achievement Test (EWAT) developed by the researcher was the main instrument used for the study. Descriptive Statistics (Mean and Standard Variation) were used in answering the research questions while the hypotheses were tested with Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at. 05 level of significance. The research findings revealed that students’ ability to generate ideas for topics in essay writing does differ significantly using process and product methods; students’ ability to generate ideas for topics in essay writing does differ significantly using process and product methods based on gender and location.