ENG 1101: Composing Abstractions Toggle navigation

A first-year writing course for Architecture majors. Part of a learning community with the Architecture department.

Course Description:

In your college architecture classes and in your professional careers as architects, you will be required to think about space: how to contain it, how to create it, how to fill it, how to shape it.

While the practice of writing is much different than the practice of architecture, it shares some important similarities: the blank space of the page might be compared to an empty building lot; an outline is a blueprint in written form; the construction of arguments with strong supporting evidence mirrors the construction of buildings with sturdy infrastructure; the inclusion of a well-shaped sentence in a piece of prose recalls the flourish of a well-placed architectural detail.

In this course, we aim to practice the type of writing that you will be called upon to produce as architects. We will concentrate first and foremost on the skill of articulating details with fine-grained precision; we will also attempt to render abstract architectural form into well-shaped prose. Throughout the class, we will work on our observation of the world around us as we prepare to create new structures for it.

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This course is part of a learning community that includes ARCH 1110 & ARCH 1191. All three classes will encourage creative, original, and unorthodox patterns of thought that make possible new understandings of familiar forms, materials, structures, and ideas.

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Group avatar: cc-licensed photo “Abstract-Groove Press” by flickr user Groove Press (http://www.flickr.com/photos/groovepress-shop-handmade-art-crafts/6012348100/in/photostream/)