TOEFL IBT Independent Writing, What product would you like to invent? - revised -

Warm-up   Ask each other the following questions.

1.      What do you like? Is there anything that needs to be improved about it?

2.      What have you learned at school recently? Is there any problem about it?

3.      What makes you concerned or angry these days?

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

Discuss the following questions.

1.    Is it all right to write about a product that is totally impossible like a time machine or Doraemon’s Wherever Door to answer this question?

2.    If you seem to have no idea about the product in the writing topic, how would you try to come up with one?

Notes

1.    This topic starts with “Suppose you were …” This means that you can use your imagination and write about something imaginary or even fantastic although you might have to keep in mind that you are writing an academic essay. Unlike creative writing, which is about anything or even nothing, academic essay writing deals with an issue or a question.

2.    If you have difficulty in coming up with an idea, trying to think of an idea related to the matter you know well is one idea. As you are always thinking about the matter, you have many things to write about it. If you are a political person, you might think of a product that can solve one of the biggest political problems. If you are always concerned about your relationships, you could write about a machine that can improve them.

☆Ideas and Expressions

1       a totally clean and safe reusable energy source

2       an application program which can tell you how the person you are contacting online is feeling

3       a device that installs all the historical morals in everyone’s brain

4       a medicine which makes alcoholic drink harmless

5       an app that makes you experience the life of famous people or those bullied

☆Essay for ideas and expressions

2016 was the hottest year on record, and it is said that global warming has gone beyond the point of no return even if fossil-fuel burning is stopped right now. If possible, I would make a product which can decompose carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon, producing carbohydrate as a by-product of the process at a relatively low cost so that people can tackle the problems related to the climate change in two ways: CO2 reduction and food security stabilization.

Global warming, combined with population increase and increasing demand for meat as a result of globalization, is worsening the problem of food shortage. For example, the rising temperature has been rapidly changing the flora and fauna in many regions and affecting agriculture. Many farmers have started having difficulty growing the same crops in the same ways as in the past, but studies on new types of crops more suitable to new weather patterns are behind the speed of climate change. Also, the number of inundated fields due to rising sea level or flood is increasing, and still many other places have problems of water shortage due to desertification, extremely rapid thawing of glacier, or drought, all of which are at least partly the results of rising temperature. It is clear that many more parts of the world will have difficulty providing people with enough food. 

Lowering CO2 level in the air is the top priority for human survival now. If there were a machine which can break down CO2, the main greenhouse gas, into two harmless substances, oxygen and carbon, it could safely and directly reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We could install the device in factories and the exhaust pipes of vehicles. Moreover, if it could produce carbohydrate along CO2 treatment, the dream machine would contribute to stabilizing food security, since carbohydrate is the source of energy. Carbohydrate made from the air can be provided regularly, so it would be a great help in making up for the food shortage.

It is true that putting reusable energy sources that already exist in place would be more important than creating a new machine. However, a decisively effective new energy source has not been found and implementing existing sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind energy devices has been hopelessly behind the rate of the rising average global temperature. Therefore, ways to wipe out the carbon in the air should be considered.

The impact of global warming can wipe the human race out. It would be nice if there were a machine that can directly suck out CO2 from the air and make food from it. We ordinary people, who will suffer most, do not have the power to make decisions. It is the time when each individual’s conscience is tested and ingenuity called for.

☆Presentation

Here is a little activity to help you think of what you are going to write about your invention.

Make a presentation or picture yourself making a presentation on your plan. The procedure is as follows:

1)    Here is the present situation. 

2)    I would like to change this situation in this way by inventing a product like this.

3)    Expected counterargument, problems or question about necessity, and ways to deal with it is as follows.

Answer the following questions.

1.    What is the present situation? What is hoped for? (Research the situation, if necessary.)

e.g. The threat of climate change and food shortage is worsening because of …..

2.    How would you like to change the situation with your product?

e.g. If I could, I would make a machine that makes carbohydrate from CO2 in the air.

3.    What would be the counterargument and how would you deal with it?

e.g. It is true that more efforts should be made to promote sustainable energy sources first, but they would not be in place soon.

☆Speech & Writing

Make a 50-second speech on this topic and then write a full essay on the same topic.