The French press is a glass cylindrical pot that has a plunger affixed to the lid so that when you push down on the top of the plunger, it forces a fine wire mesh through the pot to the bottom. You put the ground coffee into the pot and pour hot water over it. After the coffee steeps for several minutes, you put the lid in place and push the plunger down, forcing the spent grounds to the bottom of the pot while the brewed coffee remains above. This is my personal choice for home coffee prep. I like it. It is fast. It is neat, and in conclusion, you can experiment on the fly and there is little waste or throw-out.

Done properly, this method produces a very fine brew. Done carelessly, it produces passable coffee but retains a certain rustic charm nonetheless.
Since you will be able to control both the temperature of the water and the length of the brewing cycle, you should use coffee grounds that are rather coarser than what you use for drip coffee.

Put two tablespoons of ground coffee into the press pot for every eight ounces of coffee you intend to use.

Boil the water in the kettle. Take the water off boil when it is ready. Toss in your coarse ground coffee. Take a deep breath. Toss the water onto the grounds when the water has dropped in temperature by about 10-20 degrees F. or Celsius.

Soak the grounds with off-boil water to prevent scalding the grounds and damaging the delicate oils and acids.

Wait 2 minutes.

Push the plunger down.

Wait one minute.

Pour!

Tip
Grind or have your coffee to a very coarse consistency. If your grind is too fine, you will over extract your coffee and a bitter flavor may result. It will also be difficult or impossible for you to push the plunger down in your pot if the grind is too fine.

Now here is an application for your French press that you probably don't know about. Heat a cup of milk (non-fat works best) in a sauce pan on your stove or in a microwave. It should be heated just until it is too hot to put your finger in it. Don't overheat or you will scald the milk. Next, pour the milk into your clean, empty French press. Insert the plunger, and pump the plunger up and down like a butter churn for several minutes. The milk will expand and increase in volume by three or four times, creating beautiful frothed milk for cappuccinos and lattes.