Dear Simon,

The big question here is not whether students should write essays, 
but whether you have a research-based professional school curriculum 
or an artisan crafts-based curriculum. In research-based teaching, we 
expect to prepare students in a way that allows them several choices 
on graduation with their master's degree. One choice may be to move 
on to additional research training. The other choice is entering a 
profession with skills and knowledge adequate to professional 
practice today. In design, this also means research -- and it means 
being able to explain to clients what we do and why.

In practical terms, I understand that AHO aspires to research-based 
teaching. On that basis, you should be assigning and expecting 
written work.

The way we teach our courses helps students to prepare for further 
work. This enhances the curriculum and the school as a whole. By 
developing skills early and helping students to master these skills 
as they progress through the curriculum, students make better use of 
all their studies. The result is a generally higher level of 
achievement in the master's thesis and a better completion rate.

First-year students have difficulties in learning to write well in 
all professional schools and in many universities. For that matter, 
even senior faculty members sometimes need help learning to write 
well.

We can help our students learn to write. Doing so helps them learn to 
think better. It is my observation that these kinds of skills also 
help students to learn and master a body of subject-related issues in 
design or any other field. Approching a subject this way offers a 
learning experience that prepares students to handle university level 
work. This includes university-level undergraduate work.

In reorienting a successful first-year course some years ago, my 
teaching team and I used dialogue based teaching to train students in 
analysis, critical reading, expository writing, and rhetoric, as well 
as helping them to learn basic research skills.

We did this by

1) Developing a sequence for success in college level work,
2) Teaching students to write college level prose,
3) Teaching students to read analytically,
4) Teaching students to succeed in basic research, and
5) Helping students to develop critical thinking skills.

We used

5) Classroom dialogue,
6) Case study method,
7) Developmental exercises,
8) Class assignments, and
9) Coaching and development meetings with TAs.

These were part of our larger program goals for

10) Research-based teaching,
11) Innovative pedagogy, and
12) Research-based pedagogical development.

You should be using essays and written assignments of different 
kinds. You may need to add extra staff and coaching to help students 
-- including teaching assistant who demonstrated a high level of 
ability in earlier courses. In my view, any design school that does 
not help students learn to think analytically and to write well 
condemns them to low-level jobs in a profession that requires 
high-level thinking and high-level communication skills.

Eduardo's experience mirrored ours. Once we had the course rhythm in 
place, we found that in most years one third of the students did an 
outstanding job, one third did a good job, and one third struggled. 
The outstanding and good students built on their experience over the 
course of the next four years to do a far better job in their studies 
than earlier cohorts had done. Some of the poor students slowly 
improved. Others were either unsuited to university level work or 
else they were in the wrong field and went on to do well elsewhere.

Chris's comment is also to the point. If a student cannot think and 
argue, he or she will not think or argue through images or artifacts 
any better than through words. For students who have not yet learned 
to think effectively, asking for an artifact or visual presentation 
either begs the question or forces students to acquire a level of 
philosophical maturity that is still uncommon among advanced research 
students.

The last thing you want is for students to generate PowerPoint 
presentations or image spreads that seem to form a coherent argument 
while the reality is that they are merely persuasive appeals. While 
many design firms sell projects this way, research-based education is 
designed for a deeper level of understanding.

A student who can answer analytical questions on the content of a 
visual presentation or an artifact should be able to put those issues 
into an essay.

The key is helping them to do it. That's what we get paid for.

We do not have to do this work alone. Several good university web 
sites offer advice on how to write well. Several of these consider 
how to plan an article. The Internet Public Library (2007) offers a 
comprehensive collection of these sites. I recommend OWL (2007), the 
Purdue University Online Writing Lab, and The Writing Center (2007) 
at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Visualizing can help everyone to write better, not just designers. 
Many people find Tony Buzan's (2006) Mind Mapping technique helpful 
in planning an article or paper. I plan most of my lectures with a 
mind map, and I sometimes use them for book chapters and articles.

One of the shortest, least expensive, and most useful books on how to 
write is Strunk and White's (2000) Elements of Style. Three chapters 
cover usage, composition, and style. Two chapters cover specific 
common problems in English. Depending on English reading skills, it 
takes between two and four hours to read the book carefully. Nearly 
everyone who reads it finds valuable information on better writing. 
The new, fourth edition is restructured to offer significant 
improvements over earlier editions. I recommend it. Those who do not 
wish to make a modest investment in this short, useful book will find 
the 1918 edition available free on the Web (Strunk 1918). While many 
of my students write in English to improve their second-language 
skills, it is my experience that working with Strunk and White also 
helps students to write better Norwegian and Swedish.

Helping students to write better is real work. That's what we should 
do -- designers will use and develop other skills in most of their 
classes. Writing is valuable and necessary exercise for skills that 
otherwise go undeveloped.

Warm wishes,

Ken


References

Buzan, Tony and Barry. 2006. The Mind Map Book. London: BBC Active.

Internet Public Librrary. 2007. Style and Writing Guides.
URL: http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref73.00.00/
Date accessed 2007 May 5.

OWL. 2007. The Purdue University Online Writing Lab. URL: 
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Date accessed: 2007 May 5.

Strunk, William, Jr. 1999 [1918]. The Elements of Style. New York, 
New York: Batleby.Com. [Ithaca, New York: W. P. Humphrey.] URL: 
http://www.bartleby.com/141/
Date accessed: 2007 May 18.

Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. 2000. The Elements of Style. 
Fourth Edition. Foreword by Roger Angell. New York: Longman.

Writing Center. 2007. The University of Wisconsin- Madison Writing 
Center. URL: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/
Date accessed: 2007 May 5.



-- 

Prof. Ken Friedman
Institute for Communication, Culture, and Language
Norwegian School of Management
Oslo

Center for Design Research
Denmark's Design School
Copenhagen

+47 46.41.06.76    Tlf NSM
+47 33.40.10.95    Tlf Privat

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