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Morgan Seals
Lynn Kilpatrick
English 1010
Reading and Writing, a Necessity for the Job
What kinds of reading and writing skills would an architect need? This
is what I use to ask myself before I did research on the field of architecture. I
am going into building design so I did not think that there was much writing
involved but I was proven wrong time and again. Through research and
conducting an interview with a real architect who is in the field of building
design I realized how important these skills are. Reading and writing skills
are essential in all fields of architecture and for many different reasons.
Architecture has many aspects to it that require many different skills
from having good math skills to being able to draw well. All of these skills
are essential to complete the job successfully and with as few problems as
possible. I am planning on going into building design which requires having
good drawing skills. Something all fields require are reading and writing
skills, they need to communicate to all kinds of people such as the general
public, people in the architectural profession, and people reading about
architecture for academic purposes.
In my interview I learned that in architecture good reading and writing
skills are essential for completing a project successfully and to the

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customers specifications. I was surprised to learn how regularly architects

use reading and writing in this field. Writing is something that architects do
on a daily basis no matter what specific field they work in. Professionally you
need to be able to clearly communicate your ideas to the other people
working on the project and because the design ideas of the building can be
changing constantly, everyone on the team needs to be up to date on the
design. An example of this is when you or someone else has a set design for
a building but have made changes to it so you need to clearly communicate
to the other team members what those changes are and what your vision for
the project is. It is also important to have good reading skills so that you can
understand what someone else is trying to communicate to you and have a
complete and clear understanding of their ideas. These skills are also
important for communicating with the customer to be able to ensure that the
building meets their specifications. You are designing the building for them
so you need to communicate well with the customer to successfully complete
the project.
When I did research on writing in the field of architecture I realized that
having good reading and writing skills are important for different reasons.
The articles that I read tried to appeal to people on more of an intellectual
level, to make sure that the information was seen as factual and reliable.
People need information on architecture in different ways and for different
reasons. For example an article written for people in the professional field of
architecture would be difficult for the general public to understand and the

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information would not be interesting or helpful to the public. An article

directed towards professionals need more detailed information so they can
implement it into their work. An article for the public just needs the basics
because they are only reading for general information.
Another way reading and writing skills are utilized are through articles
and other informational pieces such as academic journals. In articles from
magazines these skills are used to inform the public the latest discoveries
and news in architecture. The writers need to be able to transfer the
information from what architects can understand to what the general public
can understand. There are always new things being discovered with
architecture, such as new ways to build homes that are better for the
environment and other architectural innovations. One example of this type
of magazine is Abitare which is an international architecture magazine
which is focused on presenting new building designs to the public. News like
this is what the public would be searching for when they read articles about
architecture. It is important that people in this field know how to
communicate to all demographics and fields so they can keep people
informed about architecture.
One of the topics of interest addressed during my research of public
sources was building green buildings. Building environmentally friendly
buildings has become wildly popular and there have been new, innovative
ways to accomplish this. Architects have been keeping the public informed
of these new architectural accomplishments through magazine articles and

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online articles. By communicating with the public, architects are utilizing

their writing skills and showing how important it is to share news about
architecture. Articles that communicate the latest news in the field of
architecture provide us with one more example of how important writing
skills are in this field.
A field that requires good reading and writing skills is academia.
People in the academic field are learning about architecture and need clear
and accurate information. They are just learning all of the jargon and other
shorthand that architects use on a regular basis that would confuse someone
who has not been properly informed. Being able to produce accurate
information for academic purposes is important so those who are learning
about architecture can be as prepared as possible for the job.
Writing and reading skills in a professional way differ from the others
because it is presenting information to those who already have a grasp on
the vocabulary that is needed to understand information that deals with
architecture. For example articles written about new techniques to complete
a project better would use the lingo that architects use regularly without
giving and explanation. Because the journal was written with architects in
mind it would be hard for anyone outside of that field to read it.
In architecture there is jargon used that people outside of the field
would not understand. The type of jargon architects use is usually a
shortened form of a sentence. An example of the jargon used is OPR which

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stands for owners project requirements. The reason they use this type of
short-hand is because they use these terms so often and communicating can
become complicated and wordy, shortening the sentence makes it easier
and quicker to read.
What I learned about how architects communicate to each other and
the world has made me realize how important it is to have good reading and
writing skills. I now know that if I want to be and architect that I will have to
work hard to improve these skills so that I can advance through that career. I
will also take my reading and writing assignments more seriously as I further
my education now that know how important they are for succeeding in this
field of work. Choosing a career is serious and it is important to know about
all aspects and skills that are required of you to be successful. To anyone
else who wants to pursue being an architect I would advise that you take
your education seriously and realize that reading and writing are essential
skills for success.

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Works Cited
BRIONES, VINCE, and DAVE MCFARLANE. "Basis Of Design." ASHRAE Journal
55.10 (2013): 76

81. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Nov. 2015

Gallanti, Fabrizio. "Mamm, a Pile of Magic Boxes." Abitare. 28 Sept. 2015.

Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
McCarthy, C. Alex. "Building Information Modeling: Adapting Design Across
Global Markets."

ASHRAE Transactions 120.1 (2014): 1-4.

Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Nov. 2015