Writing

Bay Area Transit Stations To Feature Local Writers
A contest in the San Francisco Bay Area will select 30 short stories that will be available at special vending kiosks at transit stations.

The 'Garbage Language' of Planning
The language we use as planners can serve many purposes and often hinders good communication rather than fostering it.

Where Have All the Writers Gone?
Aaron Renn identifies the negative effects of ongoing concentration of media professionals of the "writer" variety in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
The Long and Short of Writing
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> </span> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Study after</span><a href="/node/34807" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small"> study</span></a><span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman"> <span style="font-size: small">highlights writing as a major skill that planning employers are looking for in new hires. Two specific kinds of writing seem most challenging to beginning planners.<br />
Should I do a PhD in Planning?
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: 'Times New Roman'">In coming weeks doctoral applications in planning are due. Why apply? </span> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: 'Times New Roman'">For professional planners, a PhD sometimes sounds interesting compared with doing a regular job in a municipality. Some designers remember studio professors who seemed to float into class, unprepared, for a few hours per week. Compared with the ups and downs of private design practice, this can seem quite appealing. Of course, some people genuinely like studying and research, want to make a contribution in that area, and have a flair for teaching. </span> </p>
Finding Information about Planning: What Do Faculty Do?
<span style="color: black"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman">Planning students are often told to find good information. How to do that is becoming both simpler, due to various search engines and databases, and more complex, given the amount of information available.
Planning Papers and Reports: Some Tips for Students
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>For most planning programs in the U.S. this is the end of the semester. Having read literally hundreds of papers over the past few months I have reflected on the lessons of better papers for writing in planning.</span></p>
Skills in Planning: Writing Content-Free Planning Documents
<p class="MsoNormal"> For many students graduate school is the time to learn how to write professional reports and memos. One of the skills many planning students seem eager to master is writing the content-free document. This kind of writing is a little tricky to do. Accordingly, in this last blog in my series on planning skills I provide tips on how to create sentences, paragraphs, and whole reports and PowerPoint presentations that convey the absolute minimum of important information. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <em>Titles </em> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Titles should never reveal the actual content of the report. This is the guideline I find easiest to follow myself. </p>
Skills in Planning: Writing Literature Reviews
<p> <span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman">Terrorized by the literature is the title of a chapter of Howard Becker’s excellent book, <em>Writing for Social Scientists</em> (1986, Chicago). Whether through terror or misunderstanding, the literature review is one of the areas that students in planning find most confusing. While I have dealt with the literature review briefly in my blog on writing <a href="/node/29949" target="_blank">proposals</a>, the tips below provide more detailed advice on how to compose a literature review and how to find important literature in the age of information overload.</span></span><em><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman"> </span></em> </p>
Communication: Online Advice about Writing for Planners
<p class="MsoNormal">What do planners do? Last month I highlighted the findingsof several surveys of planners aiming to identify core skills for theworkplace. They highlight the importance of skills in communication,information analysis and synthesis, political savvy, and basic workplacecompetencies and attitudes. In all these surveys, however, the ability to writewell is at or near the top. </p>
Brick & Story
City of Mt Shasta
McKenna
Cohousing Association of the US
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Rail~Volution
Sun City Center Community Association, Inc
City of Mesa
Town of Gilbert, Arizona
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.