Essay writing can be quite a stressful task for any student!
But then, they are vital for giving a boost to your academic career. Especially if you’re pursuing architecture, these essays show your expertise in a particular subject along with your skills to neatly craft and present it on paper.
So, what goes into an impressive architectural essay? What are the things you need to keep in mind while writing one?
Read along as we guide you through the essential aspects of a well-crafted architecture essay that can create an impact on the readers, and help with your academic career.
The broad scope of architecture
To a lot of people, architecture is a field of study and career path related to designing buildings and other landscapes. But architecture is actually much broader than that. It refers to any structure that a human being designs and constructs to fill space.
This might include designing commercial and residential spaces, landscapes, green design, urban design, industrial architecture, and so on. Each of these has anthropological, psychological, and historical aspects that give them prominence and make them stand out from the rest.
So, when you write an academic essay on architecture, you must make sure that you choose a specific niche and touch along these aspects through academic approaches. This makes your piece much more credible and makes up for an exciting read.
Getting started on your essay
Perhaps, having a head-start to your piece is the most difficult part of all because you might be confused as to where to start.
At this point in time, you must be looking at certain sources on the internet or browsing books as to how to begin with your essay. This is a good thing because you’ve at least taken the initiative to work on your essay. The internet is full of websites that can help you with comprehensive learning sources, which in turn would aid you in crafting your academic paper.
Now, let us reiterate once more the fact that architecture is certainly a broad field. So, when you’re asked to write an essay, make sure you narrow down the scope of the subject. And that’s going to be your first step.
You might wonder how to go about it. Many professional academic writers advise students to zero in on a topic that can be elaborated on the basis of geographical location, time period, and style. Focussing on these aspects will give your essay the much-needed informational structure.
Ask yourself the big question, based on your interest. Then narrow it down to smaller topics by scoping out possibilities. This might require a little research. For example, if you are looking for some specific architectural structure or an architect in relation to your big question, more questions might pop up in your mind. This could pave the way for the final question you might want to find answers to and base your research paper on.
After deciding on a particular topic, you must thoroughly research it so that your essay makes for an intriguing read. You can make use of resources from the internet, books, encyclopedias from libraries, previous research papers, and several other sources to get the information that goes into your essay.
Also, make sure that you can find a good amount of information on your topic before you commit yourself to writing the essay. Many topics might look promising and easy at first, but might not actually have information worth going into a research paper. Keep switching the focus between the question and the research work to ensure that the information gained is relevant.
You must even include the aesthetics of the building in your topic, keeping in mind the historical context. Moreover, you can also critique various essays written by professionals on the said topic.
After you make notes for basic research, analyze the information collected based on visual, historical, and textual aspects. This helps you keep your essay factual, precise, and free of errors.
Essay planning
Once done with the research, the student must plan the structure of the essay. Needless to say, the style of the essay must be chosen strategically. Unless specified otherwise, many research essays and papers related to architecture follow an analytical style. Here, the students are advised to state facts based on the research work.
Also, when practicing writing essays, it is suggested to use a persuasive style as it lets you put forward a case and argue about a certain style of architecture. This helps the students effectively present their papers and master the essay writing style.
Then, the facts collected must be structured into paragraphs, which form the body of the essay. For that, you must choose the facts that you think must go into the essay and describe them in a sentence or two, ideally.
As you finish the planning phase, you are all set to start working on your architecture essay.
Writing your essay
Drafting is, of course, the most essential part of writing your essay. Prepping your information and structuring it acts like a support system for this part.
When you begin working on your essay, you must note that you should start with the introduction. This must be written in the form of a paragraph, and should not be longer than five sentences. It must be crisp, yet interesting enough to appeal to the readers.
Usually, the introductory paragraph is the one part that gives an opportunity for the writer of the essay to create an impact on the reader. So, the stronger your introductory point, the better the impression you make on your markers.
Paraphrasing is another thing that you should follow to make your essay relevant from the beginning to the end. Also, keep track of the essay’s style and the overall effect you want to create on the reader.
Once you’re sure of the introduction, start working on the paragraphs. The planning part comes in handy here as you already made notes as to what goes into the body of the essay.
To write effective body paragraphs, you must start by stating one point/fact from your research. This is the opening of your paragraph and should not be more than one sentence. Now, you must support this statement with relevant information to persuade the reader. Also, note that these supportive arguments must prove your thesis statement as a whole.
A small tip to make your essay stand out from the rest is to put your original thoughts into the essay, rather than just referring to your research materials. This creates a good impression on the writer in the minds of the readers.
The academic discipline in architecture provides you with a scope to include original thoughts, remarks, or arguments in the essay to attract evaluators and readers and enable them to read the essay with more interest. Now, this is one of the most essential skills an academic writer must possess.
The body of your architectural essay should reflect your ability as a writer to create academically relevant and coherent content and come up with a well-structured essay. An ideal academic essay ensures that those readers stay focused on the thesis statement throughout while paying attention to the detailed research executed by the writer in the form of arguments.
Students also must observe that the evaluators usually set the essay questions based on issues or topics that are mostly straightforward. He might as well delve into subjects that are more specific or of a technical nature.
Conclusion
Last but not least, in order to master writing an architectural essay, it’s not enough to just research well. Plan thoroughly or structure and write your essay in a well-crafted way. The concluding paragraph of your essay is as important as the rest of it, as it stresses the point you’re trying to make for one last time. And if done well, could linger in your readers’ minds for quite a while.
So, if you’re learning how to write an architectural essay, it is necessary that you give particular attention to writing the conclusion to the essay and restate your thesis strongly. An excellent conclusion summarises the best and most significant ones among the points you have argued throughout the body in one final paragraph.
It also gives you a chance to add your own thoughts, ideas remarks along with a strong emotional appeal so that your readers are deeply involved in, and impacted by your essay.
A solid conclusion is a fitting follow-up to a thought-provoking start and the main section that’s both precise and persuasive. So make sure you end your essay with an ending that’s as powerful as the start.
