Student interview for Place-Based WAC/WID writing instruction in Urban and Regional Planning, clip 3 of 13

Abstract

Brief excerpt from interview: [The instructor gave a] list of recommended topics, and my topic directly corresponded to my studio project at the time, a transit center for downtown Honolulu to include the rail and the bus . . . really into doing the research for the rail, had gone to a bunch of community meetings . . . was all hyped on alternative transit and how great it can be for O'ahu . . . the main point of my paper was to promote alternative transit . . . So it was more about how the rail can change people's lives and encourage them to get around without using their cars . . . [studio design project] was a transit center, downtown, corner of Hotel and Bishop, where there's a big bus stop right now. So I was literally designing it, a full-semester long architecture project . . . [the architecture project] entailed a little bit of writing, not like writing papers but as part of the design process--who is using this, why you need it, all of the aspects of the project . . . I thought it [representing knowledge verbally rather than visually] was an exciting challenge, because I like to think of a problem from all different points of view, so even though I had the aesthetic side happening from my architecture studio project, I enjoyed having the verbal written part of it spelled out, or organized in a paper because it really connected the two for me, and made me think even deeper about my architecture project . . . my paper grew from my excitement about my studio project.