Written on March 29, 2025

Requirements 

The technical description contains all the required sections with each fulfilling its role: 

• Cover page – formatted in APA. 
• Table of contents – includes main headings, subheadings, and corresponding page numbers. 
• Definition – briefly describes object and its major purpose. 
• Overview – describes physical appearance including shape, weight, dimensions, and style, incorporating multiple clarifying images. 
• Components – describes the object’s 6 main components, both internal and external, with a general level of detail for a nontechnical person who wishes to gain understanding of the basics without going into the nitty gritty of computer architecture. The last subsection groups the description of 5 optional components together. 
• Explanation – describes the steps of using the object step by step with commentary on how all the parts work together to support the workflow. 
• Conclusion – summarizes strengths, describes limitations, and points out alternative storage solutions for common use cases that USB flash drives are not well suited for. Further useful information about the object has been provided in multiple other non-required sections of the description. 
• References – includes full citations for sources used to create the content of the description as well as sources describing where specific images came from. Many images are from USB flash drive commercial listings. The pages to these listings are cited. 

Visuals are interspersed throughout the description where they are most relevant and helpful.  

The description includes the following extra, domain specific sections: 

• Transfer Speed – discusses how USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 flash drives have significantly different data transfer rates. 
• Lifetime and Wear – discusses factors that affect how long flash drives last and what causes their information retention capability to degrade. 
• Security and Encryption – discusses how to secure data on US flash drives using hardware and software encryption. 
• Cost – includes a simple table describing general price ranges for USB flash drives with common sets of features. 

I initially added the content from these sections to the conclusion but later decided to move them into their own sections to enhance readability. The topics were inspired by the feedback I received from all my reviewers.  

The description meets the required minimum length and is just over 11 pages excluding the title page, table of contents, and references. In-text citations are used, and a references section is included. All images are appropriately cited, crediting their creator or referencing their source location. 

The description was submitted on time. 

Language and Clarity 

For the most part, the language is formal but easy to understand. Content is not overly verbose. While there is a lot of information, there are no superfluous descriptions.  

Information is geared towards a nontechnical audience. Therefore, the level of detail is not too deep to cater to a general audience. Some jargon is included which would be familiar to people with basic electronics knowledge and provides general readers with language tidbits they can use to do further research. 

Revisions and Edits 

Breakdown by section: 

• Definition – minimal revisions here with slight rewording and inclusion of a new closing sentence. 
• Functions – nearly no revision. 
• Overview – inclusion of object’s typical weight and entire paragraph dedicated to describing the dimension of the object complete with images. 
• Components – added references to each component in the main component diagram, elaborated on NAND flash memory, clarified use of the term “microcontroller,” made some light edits to the Optional Components section. 
• Created multiple new sections to talk about important aspects of the object including speed, lifetime, security, and cost. 
• Explanation – no revision. 
• Conclusion – added a paragraph exploring other storage options for large amounts of data and long-term persistence needs. 

General:

• Numbered, captioned, and citated all images. 
• APA formatted paper to include title page, table of contents, properly styled figures, tables, and headings, page numbers, and citations. 

Notes on superficialities/aesthetics: 

• I could not figure out how to change the font for the table of contents section. So, unfortunately, it is in Arial while everything else is Calibri. 
• Some of the image formatting changed when the document was downloaded as a PDF.

Personal Verdict 

This technical description fulfills the assignment requirements. Considering its nontechnical audience, it does a satisfactory job of describing a USB flash drive. However, it falls short of being exemplary. To reach that bar, it could include a brief history of the object and more detailed, easy-to-understand descriptions of the internal components. Because of this, I would give this paper a 95%.