Technical Description Technology Research Paper Essay

This project asks you to select a product or process and write a description of it. It’s a good idea to select something with which you are already familiar, so you can focus on learning how to write the description rather than focusing on both learning how to write the description and learning about the product or process. There are two different kinds of technical descriptions to consider. Choose whichever one is appropriate, depending on your topic.
A product description explains the features of a specific device, such as a scientific instrument or computer program. Possible topics include devices that are specific to your field, or devices you use in everyday life (e.g. manual grass clippers, a fuel cell, a computer or video game, and so forth). A process description explains how a complex event occurs, including a mechanical process (i.e. how donuts are made) or natural event (i.e. how lightning is produced). You can choose a process that is specific to your field, or one that people may be curious about (e.g. how a specific drug works, how a computer compiles and executes a program, how food products are irradiated, and so forth).
Note: It is important to note that a product or process description is not an instruction set. An instruction set provides steps a user would take in order to complete a task (for example, steps to change oil in a car). In contrast, product and process descriptions describe how something works (for example, how oil functions to cool an engine). The contrast is between how to use something and how that thing works—how to use a microwave versus how the microwave heats food. For this assignment, you should focus on how things work, not on how to use them.