Kinetic plots, referred to as reaction process plots, have been developed from a new kinetic model to describe solid state reactions in thin metal film-silicon diffusion couples. Metal silicon couples are considered, where one species diffuses significantly faster (moving reactant) than the other species (non-moving reactant). Silicide formation occurs as a result of the non-moving reactant being released from its lattice and interacting with the moving reactant. In this study, a method for calculating relative maximum release rates (RMR rates) and constructing semiquantitative reaction process plots (SRP plots) from the RMR rates has been proposed. An expression for the maximum release rates of non-moving reacting atoms has been derived. According to this expression, release rate is exponentially dependent on the free energy change caused by releasing one non-moving reactant atom or formula unit. The free energy change term includes both the standard free energy change for the reaction and the free energy change due to defect effects, which is expressed in terms of an activity quotient. Using this expression, calculations of RMR rates have been made for 15 metal-silicon systems and a few typical SRP plots have been drawn from the resulting data. The results and discussion demonstrate that the expression for maximum release rate is very useful, and that RMR rate calculations and SRP plots can be used to successfully predict and explain silicide reaction phenomena in the 15 systems.