Baye Ousseynou Lo,

February 01, 2026

Professor Lobell

Majoring in Chemical Engineering

City College of New York

When I was writing my technical description about smartphones, I learned that explaining something is not as easy as I first thought. At the beginning, I just knew that a smartphone is a small device people use everyday to talk, text, and do many things. But when I had to describe it in a technical way, I realized I needed to go deeper and explain how it actually works. This project helped me understand the difference between talking about something and really breaking it down step by step.                                  

One thing I learned is how important it’s to organize my writing. In my essay, I talked about the main parts of a smartphone like the screen, battery, processor, and memory. I explained that the processor is like the brain of the phone. Before this project, I would probably just say “the phone works fast,” but now I know I have to explain why it works fast. I also learned how hardware and software work together. Hardware is the physical parts you can touch, and software is what tells the phone what to do. If one is missing, the phone would not work properly. That made me see smartphones in a different way.

Another thing this project helped me with is explaining technology in simple words. Smartphones may look small, but they are very powerful. They use Wi-Fi, cellular networks, and Bluetooth to send messages and connect people around the world. Writing about this made me think about how amazing it is that we can send a message in seconds to someone far away. I also learned that smartphones are like small computers that people carry everywhere. They help with school, work, directions, banking, and even entertainment. I also understood that technical writing is more about facts and less about opinions. I had to focus on how smartphones started, how they improved over time, and how they might change in the future. For example, I mentioned that in the future smartphones may have better artificial intelligence and longer battery life. This made my essay feel more complete.

Overall, this project helped me become a better writer. I learned how to explain things clearly, even if its a little hard. I also learned to be patient and take my time when describing something. Now I feel more confident writing about technology and other topics too. Even though I made some small mistakes, I still improved alot from doing this assignment.