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This is a writing reference book for designers. Whether you're an architect, landscape architect, interior architect, or an industrial designer, the text shows you the interdependence of writing and design. The authors present typical writing assignments and explain principles of effective writing.
How Architects Write shows you the interdependence of writing and design in both student and professional examples. This fully updated edition features more than 50 color images, a new chapter on online communication, and sections on critical reading, responding to requests for proposals, the design essay, storyboarding, and much more. It also includes resources for how to write history term papers, project descriptions, theses, proposals, research reports, specifications, field reports, client communications, post-occupancy evaluations, and emailed meeting agendas, so that you can navigate your career from school to professional practice.
For ages, architects have been criticized for speaking an insular language, known to some as "archispeak." Writing Architecture considers the process, methods, and value of architecture writing based on Carter Wiseman’s 30 years of personal experience in writing, editing, and teaching in young architects how to write. This book creatively tackles a problematic issue that Wiseman considers to be a crucial characteristic of successful architecture writing: clarity of thinking and expression. He argues that because we live our lives within the built environment, architecture is the most comprehensive and complex of all art forms. Even brilliantly inspired and complex architectural structures would only amount to misunderstood abstractions without the support and reinforcement of the clear explanation. Written as a primer for both college level students and practitioners, Writing Architecture acknowledges and explores the boundaries between different techniques of architecture writing from myriad perspectives and purposes. A poetic description of the beauty and impact of a bridge will not illuminate the mechanical knowledge housed in the structure, but at the same time, dense architectural theory will not encourage individuals experiencing and supporting the bridge to perceive significance and usefulness in the design. Using excerpts and from writers in different genres and from different historical periods, Wiseman offers a unique and authoritative perspective on comprehensible writing skills needed for success.
There are a lot of good books available to help people write better. They include dictionaries, usage guides, and various types of writers’ manuals – and professional writers ought to have many of those books on their bookshelves. But most architects and other design and construction professionals are not professional writers. Instead, they are people who spend a large part of their professional lives writing. That’s a big difference, and that’s where this book will help. The Architect’s Guide to Writing has been written not by an English major, but by Bill Schmalz, an architect who knows the kinds of documents his fellow professionals routinely have to write, and understands the kinds of technical mistakes they often make in their writing. This book is designed to meet the specific needs of design and construction professionals. It’s not going to waste their time with the things that most educated professionals know, but it will help them with the things they don’t know or are unsure of. It’s not a Chicago Manual-sized encyclopaedic reference that includes everything any writer would ever need to know, because architects don’t need to know everything. But what they do need to know – and what they use every day in their professional lives – has been assembled in this book.
Report Writing for Architects presents a critical review of standard report formats use in writing reports for architects. It discusses a set of formats to help architects and surveyors to create good reports for their client. It addresses every instance that necessitates the creation of architectural report. Some of the topics covered in the book are the purpose, target audience, format, presentation, and main points of a report; description, style and basis of the content of report to be written; creating reports connected with building projects; making of feasibility report format and its content; and considerations in creating a report. The outline proposals report format and the scheme design format are discussed. An in-depth analysis of creating a progress report is given. The book also covers a special report, report on claim for loss and expense, a report on award of extension of time format, and miscellaneous reports. The book can provide useful information to architects, surveyors, students, and researchers.
At last, a comprehensive writing guide for architects and planners.The Elements of Writing for Architects and Planners offers the ultimate blueprint for the professionals who design and build our world.With case studies from the best writers on placemaking-from Vitruvius to Rybczynski-The Elements provides all the basic skills and 'tricks of the trade' to write memos, reports, proposals, and critiques.This work is essentially a "two-fer." In addition to providing simple, intuitive techniques to every writing challenge -- building great sentences and paragraphs, determining the structure of a piece, telling compelling stories, editing, and crafting a convincing analysis -- TEOW-AP also provides a broad introduction to the compelling literature on architecture and planning.About the AuthorCharles Euchner teaches writing seminars all over the U.S. Author of the acclaimed Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington (Beacon Press), Euchner has written widely about urban policy and planning. Euchner was the founding executive director of Harvard's Rappaport Institute. He was educated at Vanderbilt University and the Johns Hopkins University.Raves for earlier editionsThe Elements of Writing has drawn raves from writers from all realms. The Elements of Writing is an essential reference for writers and storytellers. I use it myself and recommend it to my students. The classic literary examples are extremely helpful. I feel smarter just having this book by my bedside, and I discover new insights every time I pick it up.- Lee-Sean Huang, cofounder and creative director, FoosaI found this book a few months ago and refer to it often and have recommended it to several people. It has some techniques that were very easy to implement and that have changed the way I write and edit. As soon as I adopted The Elements of Writing I found I worked much more quickly and felt in greater command of the text. I wish I had known about this years ago. -Marion Edmunds, Australian authorThe Elements of Writing is the rare writer's handbook that is both useful and a pleasure to read. The book's structure is original and smart; aspiring writers can read the book cover-to-cover or can look up specific issues. Besides articulating his own "tricks of the trade," Euchner offers a huge, wonderful array of examples. In clear, lucid terms, The Elements of Writing explains and shows what makes for strong prose.- Aaron Ritzenberg, Department of English, Columbia University
Now in its second edition—updated and expanded to address such issues as email etiquette and Web-based marketing, communication, and job searches—the best-selling Writing for Design Professionals is the standard guide for mastering the complexities of effective writing in professional practice. Stephen A. Kliment explains the principles of clear writing, from the formal “Dear Ms. Jones: I recently visited Polk Street Elementary School, and I agree the facility urgently needs to be modernized to make way for the progressive teaching techniques you have planned for your school district.... I believe that my firm, Izumi Associates, can make this happen” to the punchy remarks of the late William Caudill, “Say ‘frog,’ we’ll jump.” Dozens of sample letters, proposals, brochures, reports, book reviews, oral presentations, staff communications, and more—all drawn from the world of practice, and in both print and electronic formats—guide readers through the ins and outs of composing the end-products of writing. Writing for Design Professionals is organized for easy reference, and includes the following topics:• marketing: Web sites, correspondence, brochures and portfolios, proposals, newsletters, and other promotional tools• project writing• writing in school• job applications and Web-based job boards• writing in academe• writing for the media• writing as a career• public speaking plus: how to avoid jargon and gender-specific language, tailor your writing to your audience, enhance your writing with appropriate graphics, write to international clients, write as a product manufacturer, and measure the impact of what you write. Resources include lists of design media.Like a trustworthy desk-side consultant, Writing for Design Professionals, Second Edition, should be next to the computer of every architect, planner, interior designer, engineer, and student who wishes to present a polished, professional image through effective written communication.
