Simon
The approach we used at the University of the Arts to build the writing and
communication skills of undergraduate design students had five main aspects:
an early university course on writing about design taught by a humanities
professor; having them write instructions for using their designs (clarity,
logic, concision, understandability); practice communicating their work
(through formal slideshows, board talks, exploded diagrams, promotional
graphics (in graphic design class), demonstrations, etc.); a focus in the
next to last semester on communicating their interests and goals to
potential sponsors of their senior project (career objectives, letter
writing, proposals); a project manual for their senior project ( a way to
teach project management that became a prized way to tell their parents and
future employers what they had done). All involved illustrations. The main
point was to make writing and presentation skills become part of their work
as designers (as Nicola does). We also had a research librarian come to show
them how to gather information for a project.
I hope this is helpful.
Best regards
Chuck
--
Dr. Charles Burnette
234 South Third Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215 629 1387
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On 5/22/07 2:47 AM, "Nicola Morelli" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> HI Simon,
> My experience here, at the school of Architecture and Design in Aalborg
> is that students should always be encouraged to write about their work,
> whatever style they use. For each work they present at the end of the
> semester they have to present a "product report", which explains the
> technical, visual and aesthetical characteristics of their product, and
> a process report in which they reflect about all the phases of their
> project and on the methodlogies they have used. The result is that
> students have (with the obvious difference among students) a critical
> view of the methods and tools they are using, in other words they work
> on a methodology. At the exam the process report (which is usually
> thicker than the product report) has often higher relevance, because it
> gives a measure of what the students have learned from the project.
> For both reports students are requested to use the most common writing
> style, but, when necessary, they are asked to use visual language to
> complement the written part. This is because we believe students should
> be incouraged to cultivate their (supposed) attitude to express
> themselves with drawing, especially in non academic contexts.
> Cheers
> Nicola
>
>
> Associate Professor Nicola Morelli, PhD
> School of Architecture and Design,
> Aalborg University, Denmark
> Web: www.aod.aau.dk/staff/nmor
> skype: nicomorelli
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and
> related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Simon Clatworthy
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 7:26 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Essays for design students
>
> 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
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