scaffold

Intellect

Peter Elbow – free writing – writing without teachers

Write about the streets of your city

Prishtina, a city of chaos,

The streets are filled with lots of rubbish, through out by everyone and everywhere.

Buildings on the side of the streets have their windows broken, the spaces allowed for green zones have no greens on it, no grass nothing, apart from a lot of rubbish and mud.

Cars, cars, cars, streets are filled with cars, kids have nowhere to play, the dedicated play filled have turned into parking spaces, they are now filled with cars. There is no pedestrian zone, again all is filled with cars.

People find it very difficult to navigate through the streets of Ulpiana, an urban zone within the city of Prishtina.

Mothers with their children are constantly endangered while moving through the streets of Prishtina. Bikers are non exitent, as there is no respect nor priority for anyone in the streets except for the cars.

Aspahlt has started crumbling, there are big holes.

Good conditions for writing.

Writing, not my greatest forte. I guess this is a payback from the childhood days when I did not want to waste anytime reading, I was out there playing football. Now I find it quite difficult to write, It is getting better though, this course, it feel that it will crack my writing problem. I can already sense it.

When do I write best. Well I guess it has to be one of those late quite noghts with a mellow music on the beakground, when I feel that everyone else is sleeping and there is nothing else for me to do bt to concentrate on myself my own reading and writing, my own research my own world.

I guess a glass of wine, or a glass of wisky helps to, to put me on that chilled mode, chiled groovy dimension, when I sense a warming up in the back of my head, sometimes I get a high, as I am actually getting one now.

It is a great feeling to see and feel that you are getting over of your fear of writing, fear of presenting your own ideas with your own words.

I do not have this fear.

What writing have you done on your thesis or what writing would you like to do on your thesis.

My thesis presents the idea of finding ways, creating evaluating systems whereby a community can be quantified and taken as an important parameter in generative architecture and Urban Planning.

Various research has been carried out in Generative Architecture and Urban Planning, myself included.

There is a process which architects and Urban planners undergo when carrying out any architectural and Urban planning design. Various parameters are taken into consideration in a predominantly linear fashion. All these parameters are looked at one after the other, they are tested againsta each other and the final outsome I than proposed as a solution. What generative architecture and Urban planning does is that it takes into account all these paramateres at the same time, in one go, throws them against eachother and proposes an outcome.

Up until now, a very important parameter, which is community has not realy been taken into consideration. What my research will try and recover is how we can evaluate the community in mid. .Urban planning and Architecture

Get a companion who coaches you / Jehona

Serial Writing

‘bige’ vs ‘snack’ writing

You need to schedule your writing in a day, so that you can produce good writing.

Try and become a snack writer, so that you write a bit everyday. Produce a paragraph everyday, perhaps spend about an hour of writing everyday.

‘’Motivation comes most reliably in the wake of regular involvement.’’ (Boice 1994: 236)

See what is realistic on your working week to write. It does not matter what you are writing, it will all come together. The early stuff may be the most important stuff. The most informal stuff may be the best stuff.

BLOG on your research, write about white you are doing regularly, if you are doing your case study then do it on your blog, it will help you.

Perhaps, I could start writing about the Shed idea, about the house idea.

Daily walk has an energising effect, to connect you to your practice of writing.

Or have a date with yourself once a week. To give something back to yourself. Give yourself a treat, especially if you are working.

Write a contract with yourself.

Hemingway used to leave a sentence unfinished, and then start finishing the next day.

Write about where things are in your computer.

There are two systems that I currently use to store my stuff, actually 3.

The one that works best s the structured on in the office, here everything is structured and I have to follow the structure as it does link to other users, they have to find things just as easy as I would have if I was looking for these files.

The second system which is my own personal one but still linked to my time in the office is my Rama file on the z drive. This is where I create new folders as they emerge from day to day. I havechapter/files and within them everything to do with that chater, or so I think.

The Third and the most chaotic one is my desltop, I though things on my desktop, as I regard them to be temporary or this is the place where I find them immediately when I need to look for them or do a presentation somewhere or show something to someone. I find that once the desktop is filled up, I create a folder called desktop with a date in it, and through everything from the desktop into this folder. When the cleaning time comes I then through these files into a folder called Rama on my C drive, this is where I know for sure that I wil most probably find everything that I have ever done. These folders exist bring the life of my computer, if during this period of time I di not find it necessary to find any of these files then I regard them as not so important and therefore they can be deleted, I low them to fade away.

A piece of software called PAPERS.

Get all the quotes onto a spreadsheets, as you are reading about them, add your thoughts about the quote.

Mindmeister is a good tool to organise your thoughts around a structure.

Scaffolding an argument

· Decide on the main point

· Define terms, elaborate

o It is important how exactly you define the terms

· Illustrate your point

o Through case studies analyses, qaunty quality point

· Discuss illustrations, examples, stats or evidence: show how they say what you say

o Illustrate how your examples are backing up your point (illustrations, we are not talking about pictures, you can use pictures however). Do not overload your chapter files with pictures.

Every paragraph should do the above…..

Paragraph

Chapter

Thesis

Fractal self similar structure

Main weaknesses are at the paragraph level, paragraph structures.

Thesis is just a bigger project same principles apply as in paragraph writing.

Examiners should know why you are using visuals if you are going to do so, so that they do not think you are waffling.

5min:

Scaffold an argument in note or bullet form around something non thesis related that you have a strong opinion about.

· Decide on the main point

Community as a parameter for Generative architecture and Urban Planning

· Decide on the main point

o Public Good - Community as a parameter for Generative architecture and Urban Planning

· Define terms, elaborate

o Every development has to take into account the community as a parameter in order to be regarded as a public good. Various Developments tend to take into account only the price of the square meter. The banks finance projects that make economical sense on paper. The supply and demand is the main driving aspect, as long as this make sense the bank and the Urban planning department will allow the development of a project. In developing countries Communities are very rarely taken into account. Many times they are destroyed with the act of changing the existing conditions and proposing or adding something new. We have to start evaluating the community and bringing it in as an important if not the most important parameter.

· Illustrate your point

o Through case studies analyses, q

o In Prishtina, many existing streets which were populated with two story houses have been totally destroyed an instead of them we now have 12 story buildings. The existing community was not taken into account. The department of Town planning has the largest burden of wrongdoing, as it has not taken any action to stop these occurrences. The normal procedure would be for the developer to apply for a licence at the department of Town planning. The department would then write to the nighours within the development letting them know that an application has been made and if there is any cause against the development ten they have a period of 2 weeks to complain.

· Discuss illustrations, examples, stats or evidence: show how they say what you say

o Illustrate how your examples are backing up your point (illustrations, we are not talking about pictures, you can use pictures however). Do not overload your chapter files with pictures.

o We have carried out field research whre we have discussed the above matters with the neighbours of these developments. They all express major frustration and fill totally abandoned, scared and nowhere to turn to. They now have no choice but to follow the same trend, sell their property and move elsewhere while another developer gets in develops and create a monstrous project which does not take into account the human factr, urban condition, community, andy environmental paramterers and so on. The only parameter that has been taken into consideration and has been maximizes is the cost of m2

Sentences are thoughts. Pargraphs are the full expression of ideas, the unitof composition, the coverage of the individual topics.

You have to finish your point, or complete thought.

Sentences that are way to long are not great. Nor are the very short paragraphs.

Go with the flow do your binge writing but then go back and fix it up.

Paragraph structure

1. Topic Sentence

2. Elaborate / define your terms

3. Give examples / evidence illustrations

4. Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

It is not a great idea to write a one sentence paragraph. It fills to the reader that you have not got a full grasp of the idea. Same goes for a very long pargraph.

Vickenstein and filozofical investigations which are done in very short sentences is an interesting example.

Expand and elaborate the paragraph, which should nicely lead to the next paragraph. Make sure that there is a flow between the paragraph. Make a transition between one flow into another flro of ideas.

Outlining paragraphs

1. Write a list of the points you want to cover

2. Look at your list: are any of these actually more then one point?

3. Can you drop any points?

4. Are they in the write order

5. Write a paragraph on each one.

You need t make a point which is explicit to the reader. It is not enough to be implicit to the writer.

Ask yourself what are you trying to say? And say it.

You write presuming your reader has no knowledge, but do not think they are idiots.

Break down your writing goals into manageable increments.

Snack/binge

· What are you setting out to do?

o Topic Sentence

§ I would like to create My PHD research will be dealing with the Public Good as a Parameter for Generative Architecture and Urban Planning

o Elaborate / define your terms

§ When designing systems to generate urban planning and architecture, several parameters are taking into account. Urban planning takes into account, economics, demographics, political agenda, and the cities vision as whole. Architectural design takes into account location, orientation, vicinity to road, vicinity to other building, environmental parameters such as light and sunlight, seasons, function and program. Marketing research is also a part of the design element,. starting from the site location, context, orientation, vicinity to various transportation systems, schools etc. The Urban Code is very important, it has to therefore be taken into account. The Urban Code is a linear process wh

o Give examples / evidence illustrations

o Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

· How are you setting out to do it?

o Our offices approach to design is based largely on the generative methodology, whereby we aim to look at the social phenomena and try to generate or design a programmatic code, or a digital description or representation of it. This digital description becomes a code and/or a parameter within an application. Applications are made of several parameters, starting from Urban planning Codes to Material and/or structural performances or capabilities.

o Topic Sentence

o Elaborate / define your terms

o Give examples / evidence illustrations

o Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

· Why are you choosing this approach?

I have chosen this approach as it tends to take into account all the systems/parameters at the same time, whereby giving solutions by mixing all the paramateres in parallel, not in a linear fashion as we generally tend to do if we follow tranditional ways of designing.

o Topic Sentence

o Elaborate / define your terms

o Give examples / evidence illustrations

o Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

· What are your research questions?

How do you evaluate or define a public good. How do you quantify a qualitative quality?

· How does your method fit the questions?

· Which topics do you need to cover to explain your methods.

Topic Sentence

Elaborate / define your terms

Give examples / evidence illustrations

Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

Second Draft should make about 85% of your writing.

· Have you spent or time of your

Write diligently all the time, if possible. Be as clear and as polished as possible. Try not to have any rubbish on the page, everything that you have in your bunch of writing to be as best as possible.

The more intentional you are about it the better the structure.

Keep track of the hours that you write. Log them in.

Outliars a book about geniuses . 10000 hours of becoming an expert.

14 / 10 / 08

Chris Hale

An intervention has to be a true experiment.

If you trust the methodology you can trust the outcome.

Coacheing and facilitation aspect was quite fulfilling and good in terms of creating a framework around what we are about to engage with and how we would go on about doing it.

Start at the end and work backwards.

The planning aspect, or having to plan, the whole PHD as the project management aspect, when you are constantly chiseling for the new….

3 assesments.

How to design a research process?

Check UEL +, UEL connect staff,

Practice based PHD is the one where literature review is the least important.

Could I b reviewing designs. Perhaps I could be reviewing generative research tools that we have carried out so far, what are the difficulties.

I could ask A and P to describe what have they carried out, what are the parameters of their works, what are the difficulties, how do they see that the product can be better.

With regards to the shed aspec t the following questions may be of relevance.

o What is the definition of shed

o How would you use the shed.

o How many other ways can shed be used?

o What are the minimum sizes of the shed?

o What are the maximum sizes of the shed?

o What are the characteristics of the shed?

o Looking from outside into the shed, what do you see?

o Looking from inside and out of the shed what do you see? Draw or describe if possible.

o What sort of materials would you use or expect for a shed?

o What other questions do you think could be relevant related to the shed design?

o If you were to think of a shed as a swiss knife and then related to your chosen field of research, how would your shed look like? Would you call it a shed?

o If you were to think of your shed as an i-phone, how would your shed look like?

We now move on the house design

· What are the key components, and or requirements for a liveable house?

A PHD on how to carry out a PHD as a CEO of a company?

Symbolic interaction?

Ant stills lags

Critical appraisal of the research other people have created.

You need to find out where the propositions are based upon.

Is it derived from sound interpretation of actual research, it does not matter what method has been used.

In a critical review you have to say if proper research is evidence based.

You are expected to asses if any publication is derived from a proper or any kind of research.

If it has not derived from any research, it is than an idea that is not based on research, it may or may not be true, but has not been proven either way.

Inductive is generaly a qualitative approach

Deductive can be both.

Is it a speculative piece, is it a theoretical statement? Is it based on evidence, and if so is evidence trustworthy in the first place?

Symbolic interactionism

Take the wine making analogy as a method for research review.

1. Data / evidence acquired from application of research methods

If we are trying to evaluate and make sense of research we could develop a framework for understanding it by using a concept map,

Tha map might contain concepts such as

a. Purpose of research

b. Types of research

c. Kinds of research questions

d. Methodological assumptions

e. Related literature/public output

f. Scale and scope of research and so on

This kind of framework allows us to develop an overview of the topic/idea

Critical writing

BOOK ‘ interpreting qualitative data’’ david silverman

BOOK’ the limitations of social research’’ Martin Shipman

What is your target within next 6 months?

Work backwards and identify everything you need to do, find out if the target is feasible or not.

Annual review, registration, external markers, etc, what are they? They are given, expectation of outputs.

Six months from now where are you supposed to be?

Registration is supposed to happen in the first 6months if you are full time.

How long are you expecting to spend on your PHD?

Check so that it is not going to take forever. There should be a sequence of things that has to happen in order for you to achieve the target.

A literature review is great if you have got the literature. Getting the literature will take quite an amount of time.

Do a quck draft version of the next ix months,

Afternoon

Things that you have to do have other subthings.

Murphys Law, if things cn go wrong they will.

If you are going to choose a methodology,

Things take effort, organisation takes effort. You have to get a good text book on methods.

You have to do a lot of learning befre you make some of these decisions.

This module is supposed to be a process and context.

Every research is taken within a context.

Pre-existing knowledge is context. You do not compile a literature review just for the sake of it. It should aid you and serve you in your life. What you are expected to do is challenge what you take for granted. Through the process of reading you become aware of what the real state of knowledge is in your field.

Start identifying the contexts within which your research exists?

What is the context of research? Places which surround you on your research.

i.e., institutional, academic, social

In what way these contexts bare upon your research? Provide incentives for people you will be carrying out surveys with. Manipulate the contexts.

My research is about contexts, so I will have to find out how I carry out limitations to the context analyses in order to devise close to universal parameters that is able to be treated as appropriate in various contexts.

Research may have to be more focused and stream lined, it may have to take an amended discourse in order to take into account the trustworthy data.

Supervisor….

What are the different factors that may have a baring on your research

What is the weight of the baring?

What is the total list we need to think about?

Does it have an impact on you or not and in what way, and with what implication on you or a research or PHD.

Get a composite list of Contexts.

The easiest way of describing what generative architecture is the flower growing and the context it grows in.

Or designing a grain

15 / 10 / 2009

This research differs from that research, without saying I, getting I and the emotional out of writing and research.

What are the methods that will evalidate my research.

Separating the thesis from the research process,

The positivist ?

I cannot be separated from the research methods.

How do you start a similar dialogue with yourself, after these two weeks.

Presentation on Tuesday is one of the three assignments. ……. . . . . . .

It’s good to spend some time with Paul. I guess it is good send the reports.