6 Tips For Writing The Best Architecture Essays
Do you love or hate assignments? As an Architecture student, you must do them regardless of your choice. They might be in the form of essays, depending on what your professor tells you. Like any other type of essay, architecture essays have their share of difficulties. If you are specifically taking architecture classes and are required to write an architecture essay, you may have no idea of the structure and contents to compose. Understandably, this is one of the areas you may dread. Thankfully, below are tips that can help reduce the hassle, making it easier for you to write a well-structured essay. Please read on to find out 6 tips you can apply to take your architecture essays a notch higher.
Know Your Audience
You cannot start writing the essay if you do not know to who it is directed. So, the first thing to think about is; Who is my essay for? The good news is that determining this isn't much of a struggle. In most cases, you will always get it in the rubric. However, what should you do if you still cannot know our intended audience even after going through the rubric outline? You can enquire from your architecture professor or instructor.
The beauty of knowing who you are writing for is that you will be aware of the kind of language to use and the things to include in your essay. For instance, if your audience is other architecture students or those who work in the same field, be free to use the architectural terminologies and definitions as much as possible. After all, this group identifies with what your essay is talking about.
On the contrary, if the essay is for those who are not well conversant with architecture, or are not properly exposed to the topic you are discussing, don't make it difficult for them. In this case, would jargon and difficult architecture terms work? If you want them to understand your essay, this won't be the way to go. However, does this imply you stop using the proper terminologies? You can, but ensure you have a section where you explain what they mean.
Therefore, the first step to having a great essay is to know who will read your essay.
As you would in any other essay, an architecture essay needs proper planning. After all, good things require good preparations. Therefore, to achieve great results in your architecture essays, you no doubt have to set time aside for the same. Give yourself room to gather your ideas and put the thoughts you want to write down together. The good news is that, at this point, you know your audience. Therefore, you know where to focus on.
Nonetheless, this is the point where you consult various materials to gather the information to put in your essay. So, you can research your essay's content from print and electronic media sources. Whether your essay is about a building, famous architects, architecture projects, or failed architectural buildings, ensure you research extensively. This gives you the background knowledge you need for the essay. It also adds a touch of professionalism to your essay. Who wouldn't like a blend of these two?
Proper Preparations and Planning
Thankfully, the better you get at research, the more skilled you become to tackle even higher architecture projects in your course. Thus, this is preparation for something far more important than your writing an essay.
Notably, preparations involve a lot. When you enter your architecture lectures, you begin preparing for an essay. Also, you can work together with your instructor or utilize the links and sources of information he shares.
Another way to prepare for the essay is to take some time off to ponder it. This could involve going for a nature walk, thinking through the essay, and what you could probably write about. Once you have the proposal, you can request a close friend to listen to it and then critique and rectify you where necessary. Don't you think this is a great way of making corrections before writing the essay in the end?
Importantly, you should have early preparations. Don't wait until the last minute, when your essay is almost due, to start with the research; ask a friend to listen to the proposal, and so on. What's more, ensure you have the shreds of evidence supporting your claims ready during the preparation.
Be Keen on the Details
As an architecture student, you must unlock your creative writing skills to have the best essays. Such skills include using the relevant vocabulary to the topic and description. Since you will need to do a lot of description in your building or architecture project essays, ensure you pay attention to even the tiniest of their details. If the essay is related to your future visions in architecture, ensure you bring it out such that whoever reads your essay gets exactly what you have in mind. Paint that picture in their minds.
Therefore, since your essay may one day come in handy in a job offer, let your future potential employer know what you want the project or building to look like. You can take advantage of adjectives to describe the details in your essay. Don't be too simple and plain. Boring shouldn't be the idea your reader gets from the essay.
For instance, if you describe a particular room in a building, why not give your reader its exact dimensions? If a specific type of paint is used on the walls, give the details, tell your reader the color, and paint that picture in his mind. Besides, you can tell the materials' origin and texture.
Therefore, creatively employ visual imagery in your architecture assignments. These may strike and draw the attention of your classmates, professors, and at times your future employer. Nonetheless, it helps show how well you know what you discuss in the essay.
Give Your Opinion
How do you feel when given room to express how you truly feel about something? A certain degree of freedom is great for architecture essays. Since this is one of the areas where you can share your opinion on a given topic, be sure to do so. Why restrict yourself when there is room for expressing opinions?
As an architecture student, be ready to give your thoughts on buildings and projects. How do they look? Is there something missing? Could they do with a little bit of something more? What can the building or project do without it since it is completely unnecessary?
As you respond to the above questions, ensure you give the details. Don't put out a simple sentence and leave it at that. Rather, you can pinpoint exactly where you feel something is wrong or need some extra addition. Next, give your opinion on how you could have done it otherwise in a better fashion. When giving your opinion, e.g., if you feel like the floor of the room didn't have the right color choice, tell your reader why, and give a better alternative, supporting why it fits more.
Explore Examples
Sometimes, the trick to getting the best architecture essays is seeing what others have done. Such examples can help you know what you are expected to write, how to structure your essay, and what kind of content you should have.
Where can you explore these beneficial examples? As you would have already guessed, there are a lot of learning resources online. Therefore, you can check online to see if an expert has already written the same or related architecture essay.
Moreover, don't be scared to request your professors for befitting examples. They could give you the perfect lead to what you need. Besides, they have interacted with architecture students for years; they have done something similar. So, your professor may even show you examples of their essays. You can gain a lot from going through these essays. However, what if your professor responds negatively? Remember, you have no control over how they react, and you have nothing to lose if this is the response. Either way, ask. It is better to get negative feedback after enquiring than to have no response because you didn't reach out.
Follow the Format
An essay is as good as its format. Thankfully, one of the tips mentioned earlier talked about going through already done essays on the topic to get how you can structure yours. You may have the right content to describe your buildings and projects in detail, give an opinion, and even know your audience, but without the proper format, you may miss out.
So, what is the format of architecture essays to perfect? This is;
The Introduction
This is undoubtedly what your reader gets to after reading your essay title. Therefore, it should be perfected and properly written. After all, why keep reading an essay with a poor introduction? Ensure the reader gets the essential idea within the first 5 introductory sentences. Importantly, make them too compelling to grab the reader's attention and keep them engrossed in your essay.
Furthermore, your introduction should also have the thesis statement. Once again, your architecture thesis statements should be very persuasive. Remember, you want the reader glued to the end.
The Body
These next paragraphs concisely articulate your findings, the supportive evidence, and the information. Additionally, it should also contain your thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Imagine bringing in such a touch of uniqueness in your essay!
Remember, the content of the body of the essay should portray how knowledgeable and well-informed you are on the topic. The good thing is that when you plan properly, you know where to focus your essay on.
Conclusion
When concluding your architecture essay, ensure it summarizes the idea behind what you have written. This is where you emphasize the key points and leave the final message to the reader. Once again, do it perfectly and ensure you persuade your reader.
At this point, should you submit the paper straightaway? Not until you proofread several times to check for grammar, terminology, and definition mistakes, among others. Moreover, you can request a reliable friend to go through your essay, giving you his independent opinion before you forward it to the professor.
Bottom Line
Writing the best architecture essays can be daunting. It also takes a lot of time. However, with the right tips, the process is simpler. Our 6 topics can be of great help. You can start by knowing your audience, planning and preparing properly and early enough, being open to giving your personal opinion, and paying attention to detail.
Nonetheless, you can review examples of previously done architecture essays as you stick to the right format. Therefore, following our tips is the way to go if you want effective architecture essays. Remember always to proofread your essays before submission. Moreover, you can always hire an expert to help you write the best architecture essays.