How to Write a Technology Essay: Simple Steps for a Difficult Paper

Need advice on how to write a technology essay? Technology is a vast and evolving field and it involves a wide variety of subjects within. Writing on technology can involve researching how it solves problems, creates new problems in the environment and in contemporary society, and how the interaction with technology advancements is changing the humankind.

In this article, you will find a complete technology essay writing guide and some interesting ideas to help you get started. We will break down the challenging writing process into manageable parts. Keep reading to learn about effective strategies that will help you improve your writing, avoid common mistakes, and create an outstanding essay on technology.

What Is a Technology Essay?

A technology essay is similar to other essays at college so you need to answer a specific research question by developing a convincing argument that is based on relevant evidence and critical reasoning. Like any academic essay, it is a large project that involves completing several steps before you hand it in such as analyzing the question, gathering resources, information, and evidence, developing a plan (outline), getting the rough draft done, editing, and proofreading.

A technology essay must include some key elements:

• a clear introduction with a strong thesis statement;
• body paragraphs that are logically structured and include supporting evidence from scholarly sources;
• an impressive concluding paragraph that restates your essay topic and summarizes the key points and the thesis statement.

To succeed in writing an impressive technology essay, you’ll need to demonstrate your understanding of a topic and apply critical thinking skills to provide a deep analysis of a variety of academic sources to support your argument.

Before you start working on your essay, it’s important to have a good idea of what type of essay you are required to write, for example:

• comparative essay;
• argumentative essay;
• interpretative essay;
• analytical essay;
• cause and effect essay;
• problem and solution essay;
• response essay etc.

You should pay attention to the language of the question. Task words such as analyze, review, compare, explore etc. indicate the type of essay you are supposed to complete and suggest the most appropriate structure you should follow. For example, if the question in your assignment includes such words as investigate, discuss or analyze, you need to write an analytical technology essay. You have to structure your essay to break the topic into several components and discuss them in different sections or paragraphs, trying to keep the balance where it is possible.

Steps in Doing Research for Your Technology Essay Writing

Wondering how to get started? Follow these easy steps.

Understand Your Assignment

Re-read the assignment sheet and find out what kind of technology essay your instructor has assigned. You can also look for additional information in the textbooks. For example, you may be asked to choose a technology topic for an analysis and response essay and to research 3 or more perspectives on an issue.

Find an Interesting Technology Topic Idea

Select a broad topic you are interested in and then narrow it so that it would be possible to cover it in your technology essay. For example, you may be interested in data mining. It’s a broad topic so you should choose some aspect of this topic and write, for example, about basic data mining strategies for business or predictive analytics.
Not sure which technology topic to choose? Look over the topic list below to find an idea that really interests you.

• Are Virtual Reality Technologies Beneficial?
• Should Human Cloning Be Banned?
• What Is Your Attitude to International Surrogacy?
• How Did Technology Change the World?
• Is It Ethical to Genetically Engineer People?
• Is Artificial Intelligence Dangerous?
• What Is the Future of Smart Homes?
• What Should Be Done to Overcome the Digital Divide?
• Are Brain-controlling Technologies Dangerous?
• Do Technologies Make Us Lazy?
• How Is DNA Information Forming Our Identities?
• Why Do People Become Addictive To Technologies?
• Why Are Nuclear Weapons Dangerous?
• How Is Augmented Reality Changing Education?
• How Can You Prove That Global Warming Is Real?
• What Is the Impact Of Cloud Computing?
• Benefits of Open-source Software
• How Important Is Managing Social Networking Profiles?
• Are Social Media Making People Lonely?
• How Can New Technologies Help In Treating Mental Illnesses?

It’s important to take into account your assignment requirements. For example, if you have to write a position, argument or a cause and effect essay, you will need to explore and discuss different perspectives but you will have to use your answer to the assignment question as your thesis statement.

Find Relevant Sources and Read about Your Topic

When you find a topic that you like, you can learn more about that specific issue by finding relevant articles in authoritative online sources or Google Scholar. You can also look for more articles on technology issues in your college library. A good idea is to check such magazines as Popular Scientist, Scientific American or Discover although they are for the non-technical audience. If you want to find breaking news and research, you can check Science Daily.

Select a Research Question

Write out a specific question for doing research and make a list of other issues related to your topic that you can use as keywords for your further research. You can also use other questions to broaden your perspective and find more interesting ideas.

Use Keywords to Find Other Sources

You can use search engines to find technology articles but make sure that all of them are from credible authoritative sources. When reading articles on technology that you have found, you can also follow links in them to find good primary sources and academic articles.

Make Notes as You Read Sources

You should write down interesting ideas that you can use for citing and paraphrasing when writing your technology essay. Make sure you include all the necessary information about every source such as the title, the author’s name, the date of publication etc. You can write down this information on a spreadsheet or on separate cards for each source. You will need this information when making a references page.

Making an Outline

When you have gathered enough relevant material, you need to use different brainstorming techniques to organize your ideas and think about the structure of your technology essay. You have to make a detailed outline that will help you stay focused on the topic you have chosen and work more productively. Besides, a detailed outline will allow you to avoid the writer’s block because you’ll be able to start writing your essay from any part.

The structure of your essay will depend on its specific type. For example, when writing an argumentative technology essay, you will need to take a position on a particular topic and present convincing arguments to support it. An effective technique to do it is to present the opposing view and counter this particular view with stronger evidence. Then the structure of your essay may look like this.

Introduction:

• Background information on a topic;
• Thesis statement;
• Overview of the arguments you are going to present (structure)

Body Paragraphs:

Paragraph 1

• A topic sentence that presents the first argument;
• Sentences where you give explanations and provide evidence to support the topic sentence;
• Concluding sentence with a link to the next paragraph

Following body paragraphs have the same structure.

Conclusion:

• Summary of the key points of the body;
• Restatement of your position.

Writing and Revising the First Draft of an Essay on Technology

This is typically the hardest part of working on your technology project and the trick is to take advantage of your outline, stick to your rough plans regarding the length of your paragraphs, and not be too fussy. You have read lots of sources and have lots of great ideas in your head so your task is to get them out on to a computer or to paper. You don’t have to pay attention to your grammar or spelling at this stage because you’ll need to do lots of revising and rewriting to make your technology essay perfect in content and style. You’ll correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes when you finish the final draft.

A good idea is to create rough drafts for each paragraph in the body of your essay. Many students use this technique and for good reason. Writing a project of 1000 or more words may seem a complex task but it will seem easier if you break it down to writing 3 rough paragraphs of about 230-240 words each.

Introduction

You should begin your introductory paragraph with an attention grabber. It can be:

• a provocative question;
• impressive statistics;
• an inspiring story;
• a shocking fact;
• a quote etc.

You should also provide background information that introduces your topic and presents your thesis statement – the main point of your technology essay. For example, if the topic of your technology essay is machine learning and its impact on society, your thesis statement can be like this:

‘Artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing our lives, having a profound impact on business and this impact is constantly growing in scope.’
To help your readers follow your argument, you can also outline the structure of your essay.

Body Paragraphs

In the body, you need to argue, explain or describe your topic. Your essay will consist of as many body paragraphs as the number of main ideas that you have outlined to present your argument.
Keep in mind that each body paragraph should have the same basic structure. You have to begin every paragraph in the body of your essay with a topic sentence that actually presents one point to support your thesis statement. Next, you have to write some supporting ideas and give good examples to back your position. Make sure you link supporting ideas together and end each body paragraph with a concluding sentence providing a link to the next paragraph.

You should use different transition words to connect ideas in your sentences and help your audience follow your argument, for example:

• however;
• on the other hand;
• in addition;
• specifically;
• considering (this);
• moreover;
• even more;
• instead.

But before you use any transition word, make sure you completely understand its meaning and know exactly how it can be used to present the logic of your technology essay.

Conclusion

In the conclusion, you have to sum up your overall ideas and provide a final perspective on the topic of your essay. There is no need to make your concluding paragraph too long. You can write several strong sentences that review your key points and restate your thesis.

When you finish your rough draft, you have to reread it several times to see what changes you might like to make. You may need to go back to your resources to find more evidence to support your ideas or even check your essay question again. You can make changes to present your paragraphs in a different order or even change your main argument. That’s why it’s important to start working on your technology essay as early as possible so that you could have enough time for revising and rewriting.

Tips from Our Writers on Editing and Proofreading

When you are satisfied with the content and the logic of your final draft, it’s time to edit and proofread it. You can use the following editing checklist.

• Make sure that you have completely answered all parts of the assignment question;
• Check your essay’s structure and make sure that it has a clear beginning, middle, and end. Check a structure within every paragraph;
• Does every paragraph have a topic sentence? Check transition words and transition sentences to ensure that each paragraph is linked;
• Check your introduction and conclusion;
• Make sure you have used all words correctly and improve your word choice if necessary. Improve the sentence structure as well;
• Fix grammar and spelling mistakes and check your commas;
• Check your references to ensure that they meet the requirements of a specific style (APA, MLA etc.)