2025-08-30

IELTS Writing Task 2 Problem/Solution — Technology: 15 Common Mistakes and Fixes

IELTS Writing Task 2 Problem/Solution — Technology: 15 Common Mistakes and Fixes

Technology topics dominate IELTS Writing Task 2, requiring candidates to discuss digital innovation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital divides, and the societal impact of technological advancement. However, many students make critical errors when addressing these complex and rapidly evolving subjects. This comprehensive guide identifies 15 common mistakes in technology essays and provides expert fixes to help you achieve Band 9 performance.

Understanding Technology in IELTS Context

Technology essays typically require analysis of digital transformation impacts, artificial intelligence implications, cybersecurity challenges, digital inequality, privacy concerns, and the role of technology in education, healthcare, employment, and social interaction. Success demands sophisticated vocabulary about digital concepts, understanding of technological trends and their consequences, and balanced discussion of benefits and risks in technological adoption.

Common Technology Essay Questions

IELTS frequently tests technology through various perspectives:

  1. "Artificial intelligence and automation are transforming workplaces worldwide, creating new opportunities while eliminating traditional jobs. What are the main challenges posed by technological unemployment, and what solutions can governments, educational institutions, and individuals implement to adapt to these changes?"

  2. "The digital divide between those with and without access to modern technology continues to widen, creating inequalities in education, employment, and social participation. What are the main causes of digital inequality, and how can societies ensure equitable access to technological resources and digital literacy?"

  3. "While technology has improved communication and access to information, it has also created problems including cyberbullying, privacy violations, and social isolation. What are the main negative effects of digital technology on society, and what measures can be taken to address these issues while preserving technological benefits?"

15 Critical Mistakes and Expert Fixes

Mistake 1: Technological Determinism

Common Error: "Technology automatically improves life and solves all problems without any negative consequences."

Why It's Wrong: This demonstrates technological determinism, ignoring that technology's impact depends on how it's designed, implemented, and used, and that all technologies have both benefits and potential drawbacks.

Expert Fix: "Technology's impact on society depends on implementation strategies, regulatory frameworks, and social adoption patterns rather than inherent characteristics of technological tools, requiring careful consideration of how digital innovations affect different populations, what safeguards protect against potential misuse, and how technological benefits can be maximized while mitigating risks through thoughtful design, appropriate regulation, and inclusive deployment approaches."

Band 9 Strategy: Always analyze technology as socially constructed with outcomes shaped by human decisions about design, regulation, and use rather than presenting technology as an autonomous force with predetermined effects.

Mistake 2: Ignoring Digital Divide Complexities

Common Error: "The digital divide is just about having computers and internet access."

Why It's Wrong: This oversimplifies digital inequality, ignoring factors like digital literacy, relevant content, technical support, affordability, and meaningful use that determine whether technology access translates to genuine opportunity.

Expert Fix: "Digital equity requires comprehensive approaches addressing infrastructure access including reliable broadband connectivity, device affordability and technical support, digital literacy education that develops skills for productive technology use, relevant content and services that meet diverse community needs, and ongoing training that enables people to adapt to evolving technological requirements and opportunities."

Band 9 Strategy: Demonstrate understanding that digital inclusion involves multiple dimensions beyond basic access, including skills, relevance, and sustained engagement with technology for meaningful outcomes.

Mistake 3: Superficial AI and Automation Analysis

Common Error: "Artificial intelligence will replace all human jobs and make people unnecessary."

Why It's Wrong: This presents an oversimplified view of AI capabilities and labor market impacts, ignoring how automation affects different types of work differently and how human-AI collaboration can enhance rather than eliminate employment.

Expert Fix: "Artificial intelligence transformation involves complex interactions between technological capabilities, task characteristics, economic incentives, and policy responses that determine whether AI augments human capabilities or replaces specific job functions, requiring strategic workforce development that emphasizes uniquely human skills, retraining programs that help workers transition to new roles, and policy frameworks that ensure AI development serves broad societal benefits rather than concentrating advantages among technology owners."

Band 9 Strategy: Show nuanced understanding of AI's varied impacts on different industries and skill levels, emphasizing adaptation strategies rather than simple replacement scenarios.

Mistake 4: Limited Technology Vocabulary

Common Error: Using basic words repeatedly: "computer," "internet," "phone," "new," "fast," "good," "bad"

Why It's Wrong: Limited vocabulary reduces lexical resource scores and fails to demonstrate the sophisticated understanding required for discussing complex technological concepts and their societal implications.

Expert Fix: Use advanced technology vocabulary: "artificial intelligence," "machine learning," "digital transformation," "cybersecurity," "data privacy," "algorithmic bias," "digital literacy," "technological disruption," "human-computer interaction," "digital infrastructure"

Band 9 Strategy: Build comprehensive technology vocabulary while using precise terminology that demonstrates understanding of digital concepts, emerging technologies, and their social implications.

Mistake 5: Weak Cybersecurity Understanding

Common Error: "People should just use strong passwords to stay safe online."

Why It's Wrong: This dramatically oversimplifies cybersecurity challenges, ignoring systemic vulnerabilities, sophisticated attack methods, and the need for comprehensive security approaches involving technology, policy, and education.

Expert Fix: "Comprehensive cybersecurity requires multi-layered approaches including robust technical infrastructure with encryption, secure authentication systems, and regular security updates, organizational policies that establish security protocols and incident response procedures, user education that develops awareness of social engineering and phishing attacks, and regulatory frameworks that establish security standards and accountability mechanisms for organizations handling personal data and critical infrastructure."

Band 9 Strategy: Demonstrate understanding that cybersecurity involves technical, organizational, and social dimensions requiring coordinated responses across multiple stakeholders and systems.

Mistake 6: Missing Privacy and Ethics Considerations

Common Error: "Technology companies should be free to collect any data they want to improve their services."

Why It's Wrong: This ignores fundamental privacy rights, ethical considerations, and the need for balanced approaches that enable innovation while protecting individual autonomy and preventing misuse of personal information.

Expert Fix: "Technology privacy protection requires balanced frameworks that enable beneficial innovation while safeguarding individual rights through transparent data collection practices, meaningful user consent mechanisms, strong data protection regulations such as GDPR that establish user control over personal information, algorithmic accountability measures that prevent discriminatory automated decision-making, and ethical review processes that ensure technology development serves public interest alongside commercial objectives."

Band 9 Strategy: Show understanding of privacy and ethics as fundamental considerations in technology policy rather than optional constraints on innovation, emphasizing rights-based approaches to technology governance.

Mistake 7: Poor Understanding of Platform Economics

Common Error: "Social media and tech platforms are free to use and don't cost users anything."

Why It's Wrong: This fails to understand platform business models based on data collection and attention capture, and how "free" services actually involve complex exchanges of personal information, attention, and behavioral data.

Expert Fix: "Digital platform economics involve sophisticated value exchanges where users provide personal data, attention, and behavioral information in return for "free" services, creating business models based on targeted advertising, data sales, and psychological engagement optimization that raise concerns about privacy, manipulation, and the concentration of economic power among dominant technology companies that control access to digital markets and information."

Band 9 Strategy: Demonstrate understanding of how digital platforms create value through data collection and network effects, and the economic and social implications of these business models.

Mistake 8: Ignoring Technology Access Barriers

Common Error: "Everyone can access technology nowadays, so digital divides are not a real problem."

Why It's Wrong: This ignores persistent barriers including cost, infrastructure limitations, language barriers, disability access issues, and generational differences that prevent equitable technology access across different populations.

Expert Fix: "Technology access barriers persist through multiple dimensions including affordability constraints that limit device ownership and internet connectivity, infrastructure gaps that affect rural and underserved communities, digital literacy limitations that prevent effective technology use, accessibility challenges that exclude people with disabilities from digital participation, and cultural or linguistic barriers that limit relevant content availability and technological relevance for diverse populations."

Band 9 Strategy: Acknowledge ongoing digital inequality while proposing comprehensive solutions that address economic, infrastructure, skill, and cultural barriers to meaningful technology participation.

Mistake 9: Unclear Innovation and Development Process

Common Error: "Technology just appears and everyone adopts it automatically."

Why It's Wrong: This misunderstands technology development and adoption as complex processes involving research, development, testing, regulation, market introduction, and gradual social adoption with varying rates across different groups.

Expert Fix: "Technology adoption involves complex processes including research and development phases that require sustained investment and expertise, regulatory approval and safety testing that ensures public protection, market introduction strategies that demonstrate value to potential users, infrastructure development that supports widespread implementation, and social adaptation periods where communities learn to integrate new technologies into existing practices and relationships."

Band 9 Strategy: Show understanding of technology adoption as gradual, uneven processes requiring supportive conditions rather than automatic or universal acceptance of innovations.

Mistake 10: Poor Essay Organization for Complex Topics

Common Error: Mixing different technology issues randomly without clear thematic structure or logical progression through technological challenges and solutions.

Why It's Wrong: This reduces coherence and cohesion scores by making complex technological concepts difficult to follow and understand systematically.

Expert Fix: Use clear, logical organization:

  • Introduction establishing technology's transformative impact and challenges
  • Body paragraph 1: Access and equality issues in technology distribution
  • Body paragraph 2: Privacy, security, and ethical concerns
  • Body paragraph 3: Education and skills development solutions
  • Body paragraph 4: Policy and regulatory approaches
  • Conclusion synthesizing comprehensive technology governance approach

Band 9 Strategy: Maintain logical progression from identifying specific technological challenges to proposing coordinated solutions across different domains and stakeholder groups.

Mistake 11: Insufficient Evidence and Examples

Common Error: Making general technology claims without supporting evidence, specific examples, or reference to actual technological developments and their impacts.

Why It's Wrong: This reduces task achievement scores by failing to support arguments with credible evidence and demonstrates limited knowledge of actual technological trends and their real-world effects.

Expert Fix: "Estonia's digital government initiatives demonstrate how comprehensive digitization can improve public service delivery and citizen engagement, while South Korea's national broadband strategy shows how infrastructure investment can enable widespread digital adoption. Similarly, California's consumer privacy legislation illustrates how regional policy innovation can influence global technology standards and privacy protection approaches."

Band 9 Strategy: Include specific examples of successful technology policies, innovative applications, or notable challenges that support arguments while demonstrating knowledge of global technology trends.

Mistake 12: Missing Employment and Skills Analysis

Common Error: "Technology destroys jobs, so people should just find different work."

Why It's Wrong: This oversimplifies the complex relationship between technology and employment, ignoring how technological change creates new types of work while transforming skill requirements and employment patterns.

Expert Fix: "Technological employment transformation requires proactive workforce development including reskilling programs that help workers transition to new roles requiring human-AI collaboration, educational curriculum updates that prepare students for emerging technology careers, lifelong learning systems that enable continuous adaptation to changing skill requirements, and social safety nets that support workers during transition periods while ensuring that technological benefits contribute to broad-based prosperity rather than increased inequality."

Band 9 Strategy: Demonstrate understanding that technology's employment impact requires strategic human capital development and social policy responses rather than passive adaptation to technological change.

Mistake 13: Grammar and Sentence Structure Issues

Common Error: Using simple sentences and basic grammar when discussing complex technological concepts and policy solutions.

Why It's Wrong: This limits grammatical range and accuracy scores while failing to capture the sophistication required for technology analysis and policy discussion.

Expert Fix: Use complex grammatical structures: "While digital technologies have revolutionized communication, commerce, and access to information, creating unprecedented opportunities for innovation, education, and global connectivity, they have also generated challenges including privacy violations, cybersecurity threats, and digital inequalities that require comprehensive policy responses, technological safeguards, and social adaptations that maximize benefits while protecting vulnerable populations and preserving democratic values in increasingly digital societies."

Band 9 Strategy: Vary sentence structures using complex grammatical forms while maintaining accuracy in technological analysis and policy discussion contexts.

Mistake 14: Ignoring Environmental Impact

Common Error: "Technology is always environmentally friendly because it reduces paper use and travel."

Why It's Wrong: This ignores the significant environmental costs of technology including energy consumption, electronic waste, rare earth mining, and the carbon footprint of digital infrastructure and device manufacturing.

Expert Fix: "Sustainable technology development requires comprehensive environmental consideration including energy-efficient design that minimizes power consumption in devices and data centers, circular economy approaches that emphasize device repair, refurbishment, and responsible recycling, renewable energy adoption for powering digital infrastructure, and life-cycle assessment that accounts for environmental costs from raw material extraction through disposal and encourages eco-friendly innovation in technology design and deployment."

Band 9 Strategy: Show awareness of technology's environmental impact while proposing solutions that balance digital innovation with environmental sustainability through green technology approaches.

Mistake 15: Superficial Social Impact Analysis

Common Error: "Technology makes communication better, so it automatically improves social relationships."

Why It's Wrong: This oversimplifies technology's complex effects on social interaction, ignoring how digital communication can both enhance and impair relationship quality depending on use patterns and social context.

Expert Fix: "Technology's social impact involves complex tradeoffs including enhanced global connectivity and access to diverse perspectives that can broaden social horizons, alongside risks of reduced face-to-face interaction, social media addiction, and echo chamber effects that may polarize opinions and reduce empathy, requiring digital literacy education that promotes healthy technology use, platform design that encourages constructive interaction, and social norms that balance digital engagement with offline relationship maintenance."

Band 9 Strategy: Demonstrate sophisticated understanding of technology's nuanced effects on social relationships, community building, and interpersonal communication patterns.

Advanced Vocabulary for Technology Essays

Digital Technology and Innovation

  • Artificial intelligence (AI): Computer systems that perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence
  • Machine learning: AI subset where systems improve performance through data analysis and pattern recognition
  • Digital transformation: Integration of digital technology into organizational operations and strategy
  • Algorithmic bias: Unfair discrimination resulting from automated decision-making systems
  • Human-computer interaction: Study of how people interact with computers and design of computer interfaces
  • Internet of Things (IoT): Network of physical devices connected to the internet for data sharing

Cybersecurity and Privacy

  • Data protection: Legal and technical measures safeguarding personal information from unauthorized access
  • Encryption: Process of converting information into secure code to prevent unauthorized access
  • Cybersecurity: Practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks
  • Privacy violation: Unauthorized collection, use, or disclosure of personal information
  • Social engineering: Manipulation techniques used to trick people into revealing confidential information
  • Two-factor authentication: Security process requiring two different authentication methods

Digital Divide and Access

  • Digital literacy: Skills needed to effectively use digital technologies for information and communication
  • Digital equity: Fair and inclusive access to digital technologies and resources
  • Broadband connectivity: High-speed internet access enabling advanced digital applications
  • Infrastructure gap: Disparity in availability of technological infrastructure across different regions
  • Accessibility compliance: Design practices ensuring technology use by people with disabilities
  • Digital inclusion: Efforts to ensure all individuals have access to and skills for digital technology use

Technology Policy and Governance

  • Technology regulation: Government rules governing technology development, deployment, and use
  • Data sovereignty: Concept that data is subject to laws and governance structures of the nation where it's collected
  • Algorithmic accountability: Responsibility for automated decision-making system outcomes and fairness
  • Innovation policy: Government strategies to promote technological development and adoption
  • Digital rights: Human rights principles applied to digital technology access and use
  • Platform governance: Rules and policies governing behavior on digital platforms and services

Language Patterns for Technology Essays

Describing Technology Problems

  • "Digital challenges include..."
  • "Technology adoption barriers involve..."
  • "Cybersecurity threats comprise..."
  • "Digital inequalities manifest through..."

Explaining Technology Benefits

  • "Digital innovation enables..."
  • "Technology solutions provide..."
  • "Automation advances offer..."
  • "Connected systems facilitate..."

Proposing Technology Solutions

  • "Digital policy should address..."
  • "Technology governance requires..."
  • "Sustainable innovation demands..."
  • "Inclusive technology development needs..."

Showing Technology Evidence

  • "Research demonstrates that..."
  • "Digital studies indicate..."
  • "Technology evaluations reveal..."
  • "Innovation metrics confirm..."

Sample Band 9 Paragraph

Question Focus: Artificial intelligence governance and social impact

"Artificial intelligence governance requires sophisticated regulatory frameworks that balance innovation promotion with protection against potential harms including algorithmic bias, employment displacement, and privacy violations, while ensuring that AI development serves broad societal benefits rather than concentrating advantages among technology companies and wealthy early adopters. Effective AI governance combines technical standards that ensure system reliability, transparency, and fairness in automated decision-making processes, with social policies that address workforce transition needs through retraining programs and social safety net adaptations, and ethical frameworks that establish clear principles for responsible AI development including human oversight requirements, bias testing protocols, and accountability mechanisms for AI system outcomes. Countries like Canada and Finland demonstrate how proactive AI strategy development can position nations to capture innovation benefits while protecting citizen rights, with Canada's AI ethics framework emphasizing human-centric development and Finland's AI ethics committee providing guidance for responsible implementation across government and private sectors. However, successful AI governance requires international cooperation to prevent regulatory arbitrage where companies relocate to jurisdictions with weaker standards, ongoing adaptation as AI capabilities evolve and new applications emerge, and meaningful public participation in policy development that ensures diverse perspectives inform decisions about technologies that will fundamentally reshape work, privacy, and social interaction patterns, recognizing that AI governance ultimately determines whether artificial intelligence becomes a tool for broad human flourishing or exacerbates existing inequalities and creates new forms of social stratification."

Practice Questions

Test your skills with these technology essay topics:

  1. "Social media platforms have become powerful tools for communication and information sharing, but they have also enabled the spread of misinformation, cyberbullying, and political manipulation. What are the main problems caused by social media, and what measures can be taken to address these issues while preserving freedom of expression?"

  2. "Remote work and online education have become widespread due to technological advances and global events, changing traditional patterns of employment and learning. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of increased reliance on digital technology for work and education, and how can societies maximize benefits while addressing challenges?"

  3. "The development of smart cities using sensors, data analytics, and automated systems promises to improve urban efficiency and quality of life, but raises concerns about privacy, surveillance, and social control. What are the potential benefits and risks of smart city technology, and how can cities implement these innovations responsibly?"

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Should I discuss specific technologies or companies? A: General examples work well, but focus on technological principles and social impacts rather than detailed technical specifications or company-specific strategies.

Q: How technical should my technology language be? A: Use appropriate technical terminology while maintaining clarity. Demonstrate understanding without using unnecessarily complex jargon that might impede communication.

Q: Can I discuss both positive and negative aspects of technology? A: Yes, balanced analysis that acknowledges both benefits and challenges strengthens your argument and shows sophisticated understanding of technology's complex impacts.

Q: Should I take positions on technology regulation? A: Present balanced analysis while maintaining a clear opinion. Show understanding that technology governance involves balancing innovation with protection of public interest.

Q: How do I show advanced understanding of technology topics? A: Demonstrate knowledge of how technology development, adoption, and governance involve complex interactions between technical capabilities, social needs, economic incentives, and policy frameworks.

Enhance your IELTS Writing skills with these comprehensive resources:

Conclusion

Avoiding these 15 common mistakes in technology essays will significantly improve your IELTS Writing Task 2 performance. Remember that high band scores require sophisticated analysis of technological impacts, understanding of digital governance challenges, and balanced discussion of innovation benefits and risks.

Success in technology essays depends on showing nuanced understanding of how technology development and adoption involve complex interactions between technical capabilities, social needs, economic forces, and policy frameworks, while using appropriate vocabulary that demonstrates knowledge of digital concepts and their societal implications.

The key to mastering technology essays lies in understanding that technology's impact depends on human decisions about design, implementation, regulation, and use, rather than viewing technology as an autonomous force with predetermined effects on society.

For comprehensive IELTS preparation and expert feedback on technology essays, visit BabyCode, where over 500,000 students have achieved their target scores through our specialized technology and digital society course. Our platform provides detailed guidance on technical vocabulary, policy analysis, and sophisticated argumentation to help you excel in this rapidly evolving and increasingly important area.

Practice regularly with technology topics, as they frequently appear in IELTS exams and require both technical understanding and analytical depth about social implications. With consistent preparation and the strategies outlined in this guide, you'll be well-equipped to tackle any technology essay with confidence and the analytical sophistication required for high band scores.