Liz sighed as she stared at the blank Word document on her laptop screen. She had a 10-page research paper due in one week for her History of Technology class and she had yet to begin. The paper required students to research and analyze how a specific technology had evolved and impacted society over the past 50 years. Liz had chosen to focus on the development of personal computers but was feeling overwhelmed now that it was time to start writing.
She knew the first step was to do additional research to fill in any gaps in her understanding. Liz decided to start by visiting the library to search through academic journals and reference books for useful sources. After a few hours scrolling through database search results and skimming articles, Liz had compiled about a dozen relevant sources that covered the evolution of computer hardware, operating systems, software applications and the commercialization of personal computers. She wrote down thorough notes summarizing the key points from each source to refer to later during the writing process.
With her additional research completed, Liz was ready to start organizing her paper outline. She decided the best structure would be to divide it into sections focusing on different decades from 1970 to the present. The introductory paragraph would provide an overview of her thesis – that personal computers have transformed from expensive specialty devices for scientists and engineers into ubiquitous household appliances primarily due to continuous improvements in processing power, graphical user interfaces and affordability driven by consumer demand.
The first body paragraph would cover the 1970s, when the first microprocessors were developed and hobbyist home computers like the Altair 8800 gained popularity. Liz’s notes indicated this was an era defined by high costs and technical complexity that limited mainstream adoption. For the second paragraph, she planned to discuss the 1980s and the launch of pioneering machines like the Apple II and IBM PC which established industry standards and popularized the Windows graphical interface. Her research showed the 1980s saw the rise of mass-produced business software and significant cost reductions that expanded the potential user base.
For the third paragraph, Liz’s outline outlined covering the 1990s and how new powerful desktops and affordable laptops combined with the consumer internet boom to position PCs as an essential tool for both work and entertainment for many households and small businesses. She found sources indicating sales skyrocketed during this decade as competition intensified between Microsoft, Apple and other manufacturers. The penultimate paragraph would analyze the 2000s, when mobile internet access and social networking popularized by Web 2.0 platforms like Facebook became widely adopted. Her notes showed this spurred another wave of growth as netbooks and inexpensive laptops placed computers within reach of billions globally.
Liz planned to conclude by tying together how the 2010s have seen computers shrink further into smartphones and tablets while also evolving into powerful all-purpose home entertainment and productivity centers. She would reiterate howMoore’s Law of exponentially improving processing power combined with ongoing decreases in production costs and new applications for communication and services have empowered computers to integrate into nearly every aspect of modern life over the past 50 years. With her outline in place and sources at her fingertips, Liz felt ready to start crafting the first draft of each section based on her accumulated research findings.
A few days into her writing process, Liz hit a roadblock trying to compose the second paragraph covering the 1980s. She was struggling to weave the key facts she had gathered into a cohesive narrative. Rather than get frustrated, Liz decided to take a step back and do some additional exploratory thinking. She found it helpful to visit online forums devoted to the history of computing where hobbyists discussed specifics she had not uncovered. One particularly detailed thread described the development of popular early business software like Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect that filled in gaps.
Armed with these new insights, Liz opened her notes on the 1980s section and started mind-mapping connections between the emergence of hardware standards, concepts like Windows versus MacOS and the third-party applications that drove productivity. Her visualization helped reveal how all these pieces fit together to establish personal computers as indispensable business tools, not just novelty items. With this deeper context in place, Liz was able to refine her paragraph to tell a more compelling story arc of the 1980s marked by standardization, commercialization and an expanding set of practical uses beyond gaming and hobbyist tinkering.
Pushing through writing roadblocks with iterative research became Liz’s approach over the following days. By the end of the week, she had complete first drafts of sections spanning four decades worth over 8 pages total. Liz scheduled time the next weekend to carefully proofread and polish her submission, tightening wording, checking citations and smoothing transitions. On Monday morning, she submitted her paper with confidence that she had adequately supported her thesis through detailed analysis across multiple eras. When the graded papers were returned a few weeks later, Liz was thrilled to see she had earned an A and positive feedback from her professor on a job well done. Devoting extra time to topical exploration served Liz well in crafting an insightful research paper worthy of her History of Technology course.
Andrew Stroud