Class Supplement (TOEFL Essay Writing, The impact of computers

Writing Topic: Many people feel that computers have been the biggest change in human life in recent decades. How do you think computers have affected the world we live in?

Hint: “the biggest change in human life in recent decades” →a large scale of impact on our lives like those of typography, electricity, engine, and penicillin that brought about fundamental changes in man’s life.

Question: “How do you think …?” → The word “How” is asking about scales and characteristics. This question is not about right/wrong but about quantity and quality although good/bad effects can be included in the list of changes caused by computers.

Note: Computers are not only desktop/laptop computers but also those embedded in other machines: cell-phones, electric dictionaries, elevators, etc.

Examples of changes:
Study: paper dictionary → electric dictionary / textbook → computer / research at the library → on the web
Business: making documents by hand or on typewriter → on word-processing and spreadsheet applications in computers
Travel: making arrangements through travel agents or the person in charge → buying tickets and making hotel reservations personally on line
Lifestyle: household work → faster, easier, and sometimes entertaining / shopping at the mall → at home / information search through magazines → online (anywhere)
Communication: letter → e-mail / international phone call → skype / fixed phone → mobile phone
Entertainment: board game → video game / LP → iPod / handmade animation→CG
Medicine: much faster research and development / equipment with built-in computers such as hospital facilities and artificial arms and legs

Expressions for “change” and “affected”: faster, more efficient, more accurate, cheaper, more open, more entertaining, more global, more dependent on technology, much smaller or more compact, much larger scale (Pentagon Paper – 3000-page copies → WikiLeaks documents -- hundreds of thousands of documents and videos in a memory stick and some CDs), more inclusive (more information is available to the public and more people can participate), change of thought (e.g. concept of “friends” by Facebook, way of communication by e-mail)