New Standards for Architectural Writing
In 2014, two architectural book standards on writing were published: Writing Architecture by Carter Wiseman and The Architect’s Guide to Writing by Bill Schmalz, FAIA architect. As recently reminded by faculty at the Algonkian Writers Conference, 2014 is a long way away from the writing of today. Despite their age, both are great books on writing for architecture, with many useful guidelines. However, both are dense. Schmalz uses miniscule fonts and maxes out around 100 characters per line. That’s thirty-three percent over what is considered comfortable for a reader (not even accounting for font size, which would make matters worse in the book’s 5.25” lines of text). Wiseman’s tome is more thoughtful advice than practical guidebook—it lacks grammar and punctuation fundamentals.
What’s an Architect to Do?
Nearly ten years out, social media and other online platforms have driven down the average reader’s attention span, putting more pressure on all writers to say more with less. AIA resources include a “message book” geared to help members hone their communications, but the document isn’t readily available on the website. An AIA resource on writing a book proposal—great architectural book standards for those seeking publication—while well done, doesn’t address the practical aspects of communication for the profession.
In the upcoming Designing Words, the team that brought comprehensive resources for FAIA certification (a.k.a. Fellowship in the AIA College of Fellows) creates a comprehensive, easy to absorb set of writing guidelines for architects. The lessons of Architect + Action = Result are expanded to cover more writing basics pulled from years of architecture and writing practice and multidisciplinary study into all forms of creative and professional writing. Key advice in both books is the art of culling out unnecessary language to arrive at a clear and concise message.
Architectural Book Standards
Doing the difficult work of fine tuning your writing for the strongest emotional impact with the least amount of language, according to literary genius George Saunders, “communicates a sense of respect for your reader.” The key concept is “respect,” meaning readers are precious. Now more than ever, their time is precious. If an architect is hoping to win-over a client or to inspire a community or their peers to action, the best starting point is respect. Architects show it in their actions; how about translating that sentiment to the number and type of words they use? Both 2014 noted above cite the need for architects to eradicate professional jargon from their writing. Now, in the early years of the 2020s, new words and phrases are on the “eradicate” list: all biased language and the patriarchal language (embedded in contracts and real estate lingo), to name just two. Biased language includes at least ten subcategories. A place to start is the “man hours” that originally—and not long ago—described the heart of the profession’s financial and operational model. Google will reveal, as it always does, many more of these antiquated words and phrases.
Does a set of architectural writing standards exist? Any search query on “architectural writing standards” advises on the style and format of lettering using in architectural drawings and documents. Architect + Action = Result presents many of the fundamentals missing from the profession’s resources including establishing your point of view, using emotion, supporting claims with facts and metrics, reducing wordiness and negative phrasing, and editing as an art form. More advice to come in Designing Words. Keep watching or inquire here.
