Guidelines and Requirements
The main purpose of this course is to help you to become a better writer. Toward that end, you will write - and rewrite - frequently, engaging in different types of writing designed to develop particular skills. You will write three formal assignments during the semester: an argumentative essay, a visual analysis, and a research paper. In these assignments, you will be asked to formulate your own thesis and to provide evidence to support it. After you have written the first version of each formal assignment, and before you complete its revision, we will hold a student-instructor conference. In preparation, I expect you to complete a writer response checklist. You will also write a series of informal assignments designed as building blocks for the larger papers. They will help you explore various aspects of writing and will prompt you to think about architectural history in new and critical ways. At the end of the course, you will turn in a portfolio including all versions of your formal assignments, your logs, all in-class-writing exercises, peer review comments, and a self-evaluation cover letter. Your portfolio is designed to reveal your growth as a writer over the course of the semester. I suggest having it bound at the end of the semester.
Oral participation is also an important part of the learning process; you will be expected to arrive to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. From time to time, you will be asked to present material to the class informally. At the end of the class, you will be expected to give a short presentation summarizing your research paper.
Over the course of the semester, we will go on a number of excursions to different architectural and urban landmarks in and around Philadelphia. Hopefully, we will take one group trip to New York City. These excursions are designed to sharpen your looking skills and to get you thinking about the built environment. We will use this time to question the authors we read and test their conclusions. We will also take at least one class-trip to the library for a tutorial from a reference librarian; this will introduce you to the variety of materials available in Penn's many libraries as well as familiarize you with paper indexes, electronic databases and special collections.