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Technology Computer

This document provides guidance on word choice when writing or speaking about technology and computers. It notes the differences between words like "progress" and "advance," "affect" and "effect," and gives examples of technology-related terms like "technophile," "equipment," and "gadget." The document also includes advice on hyphen usage in adjectives and lists idioms that may be useful when discussing how technology has changed over time.

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Tâm Khiết NiNi
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68 views4 pages

Technology Computer

This document provides guidance on word choice when writing or speaking about technology and computers. It notes the differences between words like "progress" and "advance," "affect" and "effect," and gives examples of technology-related terms like "technophile," "equipment," and "gadget." The document also includes advice on hyphen usage in adjectives and lists idioms that may be useful when discussing how technology has changed over time.

Uploaded by

Tâm Khiết NiNi
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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When you write and speak about computers and technology, very often you will be asked to say

how technology has changed or progressed.

notes
Progress is an uncountable word, while advance is countable. So you say that digital technology is an advance but you cannot say that digital technology is progress

Impact words
Another common topic is to talk about what effect computer technology has had on our lives

notes
Be careful with the difference between affect (generally a verb) and effect (generally a noun). Just to confuse you, in English they sound exactly the same. impact and influence are often used with the preposition on

Technology and computer words


It is very easy to keep on repeating the same word without knowing it. One way not to do this is to change the form of the word or to use it in a different phrase.

notes
Be careful with the spelling of technology. A technophile loves technology and a technophobe hates it. In speaking, you could use the less formal word geek for technophile, but I would avoid it writing. There is no great difference between ICT and IT. However, as my example shows ICT is most frequently used as the name of an academic subject.

Adjectives

notes
It is normal to use hyphens (-) in adjective phrases such as state-of-the-art when they are used before nouns (state-of-the-art technology), but you do not always need them when they are used without a noun (this technology is state of the art). obsolete is similar in meaning to outdated, but is a stronger word to show that the technology is so old that it cannot be used any longer. It is normal to write high tech rather than high technology.

Device words
This is a rather confusing set of words to describe different kinds of objects.

notes
A device is often something fairly small that allows you to complete a task. There is a strong collocation (very common phrase): laboursaving device. Equipment is an uncountable word so you need to say a piece of equipment. It is a very general use word that can be used to describe almost anything mechanical. Gadget is a word often used to describe objects that are either small or have a less serious purpose. Appliance is typically used in the phrase electrical appliances (eg irons and kettles) that are less advanced technology.

Other useful words

This is a selection of other words that may come in useful when discussing technology

IDIOMS:
*break the mould *all the rage *just around the corner *break new ground *the last word *streets ahead *on the horizon *from scracth *stood the test of time *move with the times to completely change the way sth is done very popular very close in time develop sth/to make innovations the best/most recent version of sth more advancedexpected/likely to expected/likely to happen soon from the beginning and without any help to prove valuable over a long period to change customs to keep up with time

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