1. Style, actually
Week One, Wednesday

2. A summary of first class…
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
A summary of first class…

3. Writing in Land Arch Design
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
Williams on Style
Williams makes the claim that writing is -- or should be -- an ethical activity driven by the relationship between reader and writer.
When you reflect on stuff you've read, do you feel like you've been participating in an ethically-driven process? Why or why not?
What is your favorite "rule" about writing?
What is your least favorite "rule" about writing?

4. Writing in Land Arch Design
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
Why writing is hard.

5. The case for deliberate practice
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
The case for deliberate practice
Becoming an expert writer is like becoming an expert at anything -- it takes practice. Not just any practice, but deliberate practice: practice during which the player focuses on errors, addresses them, then moves on. 
“It sounds simple, even obvious, but it’s something most of us avoid. If we play the piano — or, like Marcus, the guitar — or we play golf or speak French, it’s because we like it. We’ve often achieved a level of competency that makes us feel good about ourselves. But what we don’t do is intentionally look for ways that we’re failing and hammer away at those flaws until they’re gone, then search for more ways we’re messing up. But almost two decades of research shows that’s exactly what distinguishes the merely good from the great. ”
Read more:

6. Writing in Land Arch Design
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
What is style?

7. Writing in Land Arch Design
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
What is syntax?
Simple Sentence = S + V + O a.k.a. “(main) clause”
Compound Sentence = main clause + main clause
Coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, yet, etc)
Coordinating punctuation (comma, semi-colon, etc)
Complex Sentence = main clause + subordinate clause/s
Subordinating conjunction (although, despite, nevertheless, etc)
Subordinating punctuation (comma, dashes, etc)

8. Examples of Sentence Types
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
Examples of Sentence Types
Simple (S+V+O)
Some of the landscape theorists focusing on nature and culture have achieved considerable clarity on the issue.
Compound (SVO + SVO – SV often the same for both)
For centuries, if not millennia, philosophers have debated how and whether to draw lines between nature and culture, and whether those lines are watertight or permeable.
Complex (SVO + Subordinate)
As long as key terms remain fuzzily defined and casually used, they can be turned to the service of wildly differing agendas.

9. Style + Syntax = Writing Style
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
Style + Syntax = Writing Style
Effective Writing Style = sentence choices that maximize reader comprehension because choices follow principles governing cognition (understanding language)
Doesn’t mean “simple”!!
Doesn’t mean “short”!!
Does mean appropriately complex

10. Nature | Culture | Words | Landscape
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
Nature | Culture | Words | Landscape

11. Fuzzy Concept (wikipedia)
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
Fuzzy Concept (wikipedia)
A fuzzy concept is a concept of which the meaningful content, value, or boundaries of application can vary considerably according to context or conditions, instead of being fixed once and for all.[1] This generally means the concept is vague, lacking a fixed, precise meaning, without however being meaningless altogether.[2] It has a meaning, or multiple meanings (it has different semantic associations). But these can become clearer only through further elaboration and specification, including a closer definition of the context in which they are used.
In a more general sociological or journalistic sense, a "fuzzy concept" has come to mean a concept which is meaningful but inexact, implying that it does not exhaustively or completely define the meaning of the phenomenon to which it refers - often because it is too abstract. To specify the relevant meaning more precisely, additional distinctions, conditions and/or qualifiers would be required.

12. Map Concepts in N/C/W/L reading
11/9/2018
Writing in Land Arch Design
Map Concepts in N/C/W/L reading
Text2MindMap
Or by hand!