I run a final year dissertation seminar group at the Bartlett School
of Architecture, UCL. I encourage them to do a conventional written
piece because I have found that learning the technicalities of some
sort of interactive design software, and then learning to use it
effectively, can lead to projects getting out of hand. And I think
they find it very hard to move from the essentially narrative form of
disputation, which personally I consider a good form for designers to
learn to work within.
So, essentially, my students produce a written dissertation, I think
it's fine that they do, and no student recently has wanted to do
otherwise, at least after I explained why I thought conventional
written work was a good idea.
These conditions may not, of course, apply in your case.
Ranulph
On 22 May 2007, at 15:25, Simon Clatworthy wrote:
> Can I gauge some opinions here about the form of essays you give to
> design students?
>
> We have just completed a bachelor level course in which students
> wrote an essay about branding. We chose to request a typical
> academic essay, requiring argumentation, reflection and position
> and also requested a WRITTEN piece of work. The students managed
> very well although some had considerable trouble writing.
>
> It struck me at the time that maybe we should have encouraged the
> students develop a more visual kind of presentation (while still
> requiring argumentation, reflection and postition), one that is
> more typical for a designer. What are your practices? Should we
> force design students to conform to the traditional essay (and
> article) style, or allow them to choose the presentation form they
> think is best as a platform for critical discussion? There are
> arguments for both approaches. Anybody else been through this
> discussion and concluded?
>
> Regards
>
> SimonC
>
>
> Simon Clatworthy
> Professor of Interaction Design
> Institute for Design
> Oslo School of Architecture and Design
|