Kimberly Hill
Short Writing Assignment for Students

2003 Workshop on Improving Student Writing
Center for Writing Excellence
Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching

Kimberly Hill
Department of Architecture + Interior Design
ARC 335
Issued:
Due:

Landscape: Inquiry & Experience

VOICES

Learning goal

The objective of this exercise is to facilitate personal and educated growth by asking you to expand your thinking and recognize – as well as be more aware of – the wide range of “voices” in any given culture. Even in seemingly uniform social groups there can be a wide range of perceptual and experiential diversity. As designers, you must be aware of the potential range of diversity that exists and accommodate for it in your design work.

Sequence

• In class: Write a gut reaction statement – create a voice – that reflects your perception or opinion of the image you have been shown. Write it in the first person (using “I”) as if you were speaking to a close friend. The voice should respond to issues of the effect of environmental quality and address either accepted social practice or a need for change. Sign your name on the back of the card.

• Homework:  In conjunction with your reading assignment reflect on your voice statement written in class and formulate a response that seeks to uncover where your opinion or perception comes from. Why do you feel the way you do? What assumptions are you making? What kind of societal perceptions might be present in those assumptions based on your own socio-cultural context?

• In class: You will receive someone else’s voice written in the previous class period. Respond to what is written in the same manner in which you were asked to respond to your own as homework. Why do you think this person feels the way they do and what kind of assumptions/societal perceptions do you think are playing a role in that voice?

• In your learning groups discuss your individual responses to the voices you received. As a group, formulate ‘educated’ responses to each voice that attempts to address the responsibilities you have as professionals towards design in the public realm. Your responses should address the assumptions/societal perceptions at work in the voice and attempt to mediate or support them as necessary.