Recommended Reading
After numerous individual tutorials about essay writing, a strategy for writing the essay presented itself. The individual steps of the strategy direct the student towards an appropriate essay with a definite conclusion. Many students were completely lost during the essay process. Students are reminded to read information, including this guide, more than once.
The strategy is a step by step guide for writing an essay for the survey course, History of Western Architecture.
- Choose a specific building.
- Compile a bibliography with literature about the building, and the non-architectural history.
- Write a question in your own words.
- Read the literature, and compile information that is relevant to your question.
- Answer the question.
- Write the essay using the information compiled so as to lead the reader from the question to the answer with the information found.
A few things to remember during the process:
- The specific building should be well documented, and easy to access.
- Don't worry about adding sources that you have not read yet.
- Be sure to add enough sources that your understanding of the social needs of the time is clear.
- The question should ask how the building met the social needs of the time.
- Read the literature with the question in mind, so time is not wasted on irrelevant information.
- The answer will present itself with enough reading.
- Be sure the final essay answers the question concisely, and conveys a strong analysis of architecture within its context.
- What we are looking for is something like this:
The earlier Roman enclosures were less lavishly fortified. This is probably because the Roman Army was deployed for conquest, not defence. However, as the number conquered territories grew in number and the role of the Roman military began to evolve, a need for semi-permanent tented camps arose, as priorities turned from offence to defence of these aforementioned conquered lands. This has also been noted as a sign of ‘Rome losing the initiative to Teutonic invaders’ (Pettifer, 1995: English Castles)
