Dick, Jeffrey et al,
Another writing strategy I found valuable was to have students, especially
graduate students, read and write criticism. They are naturally motivated
to want to know more about the subject since they receive so much of it.
And criticism does, if you listen closely, reveal theory backwards.
"Wouldn't you like to tune your ear a bit," I'd ask, "to be better able to
understand where your instructors are coming from? Wouldn't it be useful to
have a good model of what goes into a good critique?" And, "How might
knowing what people will be looking for and asking help you in your work?"
I used Dewey's and other writings about criticism to widen their
understanding of the concept and its practice and then would turn to living
examples from the writings of Ada Louise Huxtable, Herbert Muschamp, John
Berger etc. Film reviews and book reviews were, of course, other good
sources. The New York Review of Books, a showcase of some of our best
writers and reviewers, remains one of my favorites.
Ada Louise says in one of her series on modern architecture in the NYR:
"Listening to architects talk philosophy is like cowboys debating
Aristotle."
I've wondered on occasion if this might also be said of engineers and art &
design.
Wickedly,
Jerry
On 5/23/07 1:05 PM, "Richard Buchanan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I like Jeffrey's idea very much. A combination of précis writing and then
> longer writing assignments can be effective. The précis allows close
> analysis and assessment, including presentation to an entire class for
> discussion. It teaches respect for individual words and for sentence
> structure. Précis writing reveals many bad habits. It is also a good place
> to begin class discussions. Progressively longer essays then build on the
> mastery of clear, direct statement.
>
> A classic twentieth century article on writing is Wayne C. Booth's "The
> Rhetorical Stance." I use the essay in design classes to explain the use of
> rhetoric in practical design work. I also use it as an example of clear
> writing--even for the structuring of a master's thesis. It is short, well
> structured, and effectively argues its point. It offers antidotes to the
> "traditional essay" and to many bad habits of writing--pedantry and other
> vices.
>
> I also use George Orwell's classic "Politics and the English Language." I
> use other works, too, of course. Of special value is Herbert Read's English
> Prose Style, particularly the chapter on paragraphs. Some students seem to
> benefit a great deal from this.
>
> In college I had the great good fortune to take classes with Joseph J.
> Schwab--if the name is not familiar, I suggest looking him up in the
> library, because he is widely regarded as one of the great educators of the
> twentieth century. As a freshman at Chicago, I took his course on
> "Philosophical Aspects of Biology." It was a course for seniors, but he
> allowed me to take the drubbing anyway. He used the précis approach with
> great success. Later courses that I took with Wayne Booth, Joshua Taylor
> and others helped me gradually to understand how to write extended prose. I
> don't regard myself as a good writer yet, but I am working on it.
>
> By the way, many of my best students--not always the "A" students--come back
> to me and explain how much their writing ability has helped them in various
> branches of design practice. They explain to me--to me--that writing an
> essay or article or memorandum or proposal is just another kind of design
> thinking. It involves strategy, regard for the user, the ability to analyze
> situations clearly, and the value of form and structure.
>
> One last comment. Has anyone noticed how the writing style of many of the
> best designers has a close relationship with their approach to design in the
> studio? I think this is not an accident.
>
> There is a long tradition of work to bring writing and speaking into design
> education. We stand on the shoulders of many distinguished educators, and I
> think it is well to remember that when we discuss this subject.
>
> Dick
>
>
> Richard Buchanan
> School of Design
> Carnegie Mellon University
>
>
> On 5/23/07 3:13 PM, "Jeffrey Bardzell" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I have used structured précis (summaries) as a mechanism to get HCI design
>> students (both grad and undergrad) to write about difficult readings (e.g.,
>> digital culture theory).
>>
>> As an undergrad, I had to write précis for philosophy classes, and they
>> helped me wrap my head around Hegel and the like. So I tried précis with our
>> students, but the open-endedness of a traditional précis led to very uneven
>> results, so I subsequently developed a structured précis template. It's a
>> compromise, in that it doesn't give them practice structuring an argument,
>> but at least it encourages them to read carefully and to develop a sense for
>> how to read academic theory productively.
>>
>> If it's helpful, here are links to the instructions and the template itself.
>>
>> http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/jbardzel/images/precis_instructions.pdf
>>
>> http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/jbardzel/images/precis_template.pdf
>>
>> Jeffrey
>>
>>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Diethelm
Architect - Landscape Architect
Planning & Urban Design Consultant
Prof. Emeritus of Landscape Architecture
and Community Service € University of Oregon
2652 Agate St., Eugene, OR 97403
€ e-mail: [log in to unmask]
€ web: http://www.uoregon.edu/~diethelm
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