TEC-ETechnology and Invention

Free writing: arguing online about inventions and screens

Idée directrice

The eight-mark task often gives a statement about technology and asks for an article that takes a side. The trap is to describe inventions instead of arguing about them: the mark scheme rewards a position, at least three supporting ideas, and the concession that makes the position credible.

Signature de reconnaissance — l'énoncé se trahit ainsi

« Write a 12-line article … entitled » ; « Scientific inventions are meant to serve humans » ; « providing at least three arguments to support your opinion »

Sujet principal

Writing — Task 2 (article, 8 marks)

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 2, 8 marks). Your school blog is running a debate on science and progress.

Write a 12-line article entitled “Scientific inventions are meant to serve humans”, saying whether you agree. Support your opinion with at least three arguments, and mention one invention whose use has turned against the people it was designed for.

Marks: adherence to task and content adequacy (3), language (3), mechanics of writing (2).

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Model article (about 12 lines)

Scientific inventions are meant to serve humans

I agree with the statement, but only if we add that an invention serves us as long as we decide what it is for. First, most of what we call modern technology began as an answer to a human need: the vaccine, the water pump, the machine that lifts a load no back could carry. Second, an invention spreads because it saves time, and saved time is what allows a society to study, to travel and to care for the old. Third, science corrects itself in public: a dangerous device is measured, published and withdrawn, which is not true of superstition. Yet the internet shows the other side. It was designed to share research between laboratories, and it now also carries the rumours that make research harder to believe. The invention did not change; our use of it did. That is why every new machine deserves a rule before it deserves a market.

Move 1 — Appropriate use of the prompts. The three elements demanded by the consigne are present: a clear position, three arguments, and one invention that turned against its users.

Move 2 — Adherence to task and content adequacy. The article argues; it does not list inventions. The concession introduced by Yet is what keeps it an argument rather than a slogan, and it is placed after the three arguments, not instead of them.

Move 3 — Language (grammar and vocabulary). Ordering linkers (First, Second, Third, Yet, That is why), a passive for the design (was designed), and precise technology vocabulary (device, machine, internet, laboratory).

Move 4 — Mechanics of writing. The title is written on its own line with capitals; each sentence ends with a full stop; the twelve lines are respected so that nothing is left unfinished.

Exercices d'entraînement — une nuance à la fois

Entraînement 01 / 02

Drill TEC-E.1 — Reacting to a post in twelve lines

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 2, 8 marks). One of your online friends has posted this question on their wall: “Could you spend a whole week without any digital screen?”

React to your friend's question in a 12-line post, providing at least three arguments to support your opinion. Keep the register of a post: direct, addressed to the friend, no letter layout.

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Model post (about 12 lines)

Honestly, I could — and I nearly did last summer. Here is why I think a screen-free week is possible. First, most of what we use the internet for has an offline twin: a paper map, a phone call, a library. The week is hard for two days, then the habit breaks. Second, sleep changes. Without a bright machine at midnight I fell asleep an hour earlier and woke up before my alarm, which had not happened all year. Third, you find out how much of your day was not a choice: I counted forty pick-ups of my phone on the first morning alone. I will not pretend it is free of cost. I missed two messages that mattered and a friend thought I was angry with him. So do it, but tell people first — and keep one hour of digital time for the calls you cannot drop.

Task (3 marks). The post answers could you, gives three arguments in order, and adds a limit. It stays a reply to a friend: Honestly, you find out, tell people first.

Language (3 marks). A modal in the first sentence (could), past simple for the personal evidence, and technology vocabulary used naturally (screen, internet, machine, digital).

Mechanics (2 marks). No letter layout here — a post has no Dear friend and no signature. Capitals, full stops and paragraph unity are still counted.

Entraînement 02 / 02

Drill TEC-E.2 — From a table of notes to an inventor's paragraph

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 1, 4 marks). Use the information in the table below to present the inventor Amel Zouari in a five-line paragraph.

Born	1979 / Sfax
Field	medical robotics
Invention	a low-cost robot arm for rehabilitation after a stroke
Why	her father / stroke / no machine available in the region
Now	40 hospitals / 6 countries; the design is free to copy

Every prompt must be used, in full sentences, with no invented detail. Marks: appropriate use of the prompts (2) and mechanics of writing (2).

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Model paragraph (five lines)

Amel Zouari was born in Sfax in 1979 and works in medical robotics. She invented a low-cost robot arm that helps patients recover the use of a hand after a stroke. She began the project when her father had a stroke and no such machine was available in the region. Her invention is now used in forty hospitals in six countries. She has kept the design free to copy, so that any workshop can build it.

Prompts (2 marks). Birth date and city, field, invention, personal reason and present use: five rows, five pieces of information, none added.

Mechanics (2 marks). Capital letters on the name and the city, figures written consistently, and one full stop per sentence. Writing 40 hospitals or forty hospitals is both acceptable, mixing the two in one sentence is not.

Language note. The reason clause uses when plus a past simple, and the result uses so that: two structures that turn a table row into a sentence instead of a label.

Méthode / Automatismes

Answer the title in the first sentence: the marker must know your side immediately.
Plan three arguments before writing; give each one sentence and one concrete example.
Add one concession (Yet, However) — it is what separates an argument from an opinion.
Name the invention the consigne asks for; a general remark about progress does not count.
Keep to twelve lines and leave two minutes to check verbs and capitals.

Pièges classiques

Describing three inventions is not arguing about them: the content mark goes to the reasons, not to the catalogue. The other frequent loss is the missing title, on a task whose consigne prints the title in quotation marks.