Writing Program
The Writing Program at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is a resource for Daniels students seeking assistance with academic writing through tutorials and individual consultations.
Writing in Architecture
As both a profession and an intellectual discipline, architecture has a unique place within the institution of the university (though it shares affinities with other professional faculties). Generally, theory concerns the architect, when at all, in view of its possible applications. As a result, academic and professional research may take the form of a learned book or article, but it may just as easily manifest itself in a competition success, a built project completed, or the launching of an exhibition of works on paper. Historically, this has posed challenges to the evaluation of architectural research within the university. Similarly, it has made both the form and the function of writing practice within the discipline somewhat obscure to outsiders -- and, on occasion, to those within the discipline.
Writing in Practice and Writing in an Architecture Faculty
In the profession, architects do a great deal of writing, not to mention speaking. It is the chief medium for interaction with non-professionals -- clients, contractors, etc. Typically, however, this writing is a supplement to the design process itself. Perhaps regrettably, competence in these work-a-day writing genres is not something architects generally acquire via their academic training. The writing genres in which student architects do participate generally fit into one of two categories. The first sort of writing more closely resembles what one finds in Arts and Science disciplines. As in those disciplines, research papers, case studies, and examinations serve to test the student's knowledge of a given set of written materials. The second category occupies a more nebulous place within an architectural curriculum. It is comprised of the various sorts of writing that students employ to critically refine ideas that they are pursuing in their studio work.
Writing as a Design Medium
One of the challenges faced by students attempting to use writing effectively in their design process is the lack of clear conventions governing writing in this context. This writing is distinguished from more typical forms of academic address by the following features: its promissory or future-oriented rhetoric (I tend, I propose, I will do, etc.), its integration with other representational forms (diagrams, photographs, drawings, etc.), its fragmentary and/or provisional nature, and its orientation towards other-and more final-forms of production.
I note these features of studio-based writing because the first step to effective writing in any context is understanding that context and what it is asking of you as a writer. It is my hope that all of you will make use of writing as a tool for design and will take the opportunity to work with the Writing Program tutors to develop your own skills in this area. As for more formal sorts of academic writing, the Writing Handbook should address most of the basic questions that arise.
Andrew Payne
Writing Program Coordinator, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
To book an appointment to discuss writing for reports and essays, contact Josh Thorpe at josh.thorpe@utoronto.ca / Tel: 416 978 2586
The Writing Handbook
The Writing Handbook consists of a grammar review and a series of tips on composing a university research paper.The Grammar Review section deals with the sentence -- its constituent parts and the grammatical rules that determine their possible combination. This section also deals with punctuation. The Writing Tips section examines the principles of sound composition at all scales of academic prose: the sentence, the paragraph, and the meaning units created by the combination of paragraphs. This section also addresses forms of brainstorming and freewriting.
To view The Writing Handbook please download Writing Program Handbook.pdf (90K / 19 pages)