Class Supplement, TOEFL Essay, A product you would like to invent

Writing Topic:
Suppose you were an inventor and you had the knowledge and ability to develop a new product. What product would you like to invent?


Let’s think:
This topic starts with “Suppose you were …” This means that you can use your imagination and write about things that would not really be possible. You could write about a medicine that would stop American politicians from accepting donations from large corporations and doing favor to them while punishing the poor, or you could write about a totally clean and safe reusable energy source. You can also write about an application program which would tell you how the person you are communicating with is feeling and what you should or should not say or do in the situation.

Chances are that if you think of an idea related to the matter you know well, you can easily develop your thoughts because you are always thinking about the matter and thus have many things to say about it and put them into words well.

If you are a political person, you might think of a product that would solve one of the biggest problems in today’s politics. If you are always concerned about your relationships, you could write about a machine that you think would fix your weakness in terms of relationships.

Of course, if you are a really creative person, go ahead and make a real approach as an inventor and eloquently describe what the product would be like and what benefits you would have with it. Write about a spaceship for Mars and its mission, a contact lens computer screen, or a nano-sized computer chip.

Also, if you are a really imaginative thinker, you can write in great detail about what change a purely fictitious product would bring about. For example, you might choose Doraemon’s Wherever Door and envision what people would do with it and what boons and problems would ensue.

But, if you are like me, neither creative nor imaginative, and given that you are taking a test, not a creative writing class, it would be safe to think of a thing related to the area of your interest if you want to write a satisfactory essay, for it is almost impossible to write in a short time, 30 minutes, about things that you do not really know of or to picture an imaginary world that you usually do not live in.


Reminder:
Whatever product you might come up with, it is important that you describe why you would like to make the product and how it would meet the need because what you are going to write in the TOEFL writing section is supposed to be an academic essay.

In the writing section, you are expected to show how well you can logically explain why society needs the product you would like to invent. The point of the essay is not so much how amazing the product would be as your insight about things around you, society, or the universe.

Therefore, focusing on explaining the problems that you want to solve or the changes that you would like to make would be a better idea. The product itself might be regarded as a symbol of the theme of your essay.



Essay for Ideas and Expressions:

If making such a thing were possible, I would make a product which would resolve carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon producing carbohydrate as a by-product of the process at a relatively low cost so that people could tackle the problems related to global warming in two ways: CO2 reduction and food security stabilization.

Reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses, especially CO2, is the top priority in the climate change issue. If there were a machine which can resolve CO2 into two harmless substances like oxygen and carbon, it could safely and directly reduce the amount of CO2 that already exists in the atmosphere and drastically reduce CO2 emissions. We could install the device on top of buildings and rocky mountains, in smokestacks of factories, and exhaust pipes of vehicles.

Carbohydrate is the source of energy. Therefore, making carbohydrate as a by-product of CO2 reduction process could contribute to stabilization of food security. Global warming, combined with population increase and rapidly rising standard of living as a result of globalization, is worsening the problem of food shortage. For example, because of rising temperature, flora and fauna in each area on this planet have been changing and affecting agriculture. Farmers are starting to have difficulty growing the same crops in the same ways as in the past. Studies on new types of crops more suitable to new weather patterns are devastatingly behind the speed of climate change and governments have not seriously started funding these studies. The number of inundated fields due to rising sea level or flood is increasing, and water shortage caused by desertification, extremely rapid thawing of glacier, or drought caused by climate change is already happening. It is clear that many parts of the world will have more difficulty providing people with enough food. Carbohydrate made from the air, which might need less water to make and which, unlike carbohydrate originating from plants, could be provided on a regular bases, might be a great help when this problem ensues.

I might have considered designing the device to make diamonds, which are also made of carbon, instead of carbohydrate. However, diamonds cannot help counter the imminent threat we face now. Moreover, they could cause conflicts, for human greed has no limit. Although putting reusable energy sources in place is the best thing to do, implementing them seems to be hopelessly behind the rate of the rise in average global temperature and its effects. Therefore, I would make food using CO2 in the air if I had the knowledge and ability.