21 Writing Urban Design Briefs/Reports

Report Writing Conventions

• Discuss all elements in an illustration; illustrate all elements in the discussion. 
  • Figures should always appear close within the report to the text that describes them. The first sentence that
    discusses the figure should end with a reference to the figure so that the reader knows where to look
    for the visual [e.g. This is an example sentence describing a site (Figure 1).].

• Paragraphs are not bullet points; bullet points are not paragraphs.
  • Paragraphs are the most substantial elements of writing, and the building blocks of a professional report.
    • Here’s a UW writing centre link that explains how to write strong essay paragraphs. 
  • Even though you’re not crafting an argument in a standard essay format in a report like this, you are still trying to communicate a key point in each paragraph.
  • All points in the paragraph must hang together thematically and link back to the report purpose.
  • One or two sentences do not make a paragraph. Super short paragraphs signal that you need to go back through what you written, determine the main theme of what you’re writing and re-organize it so that it works together in a coherent paragraph.
    • For example, in a site & context analysis report if the key point of a paragraph is to communicate that the site has an extreme slope, each sentence includes your observations and measurements that support the point about the site topography. The paragraph concludes with a link to the report purpose, which is analyzing the site and its context to inform your next design moves (e.g. the #% slope limits the use of the site for xyz purposes but are useful for ABC purposes and diverting water into the nearby xyz stream). 

• Use active voice.
  • Even though passive voice is common in report writing, that does not mean it is good writing style.
  • Passive voice plays the political trick of removing responsibility of naming the actors-
    • (e.g. “it was decided that X policy was the appropriate course of action” or “it is recommended
      that…”). Who analyzed or decided? Who concluded? Who is recommending? Your group? The Campus
      Master Plan? [Council? Staff?]
  • It is better to write: “we decided” or “Staff recommend.”

• It’s not about you, it’s about your topic.
  • Active voice with “I” statements may sound out of place in a professional report, so think about how you can rephrase your points keeping the verb tense active,
    but centering the attention on the topic, not you as the author.
  • Keep the focus on the site and its users, not a narrative of what you as a group did to analyze it
    • (e.g. “and then we… and then we….and then we…” is boring and misplaces the focus).

• The verb tense in a paragraph should be consistent throughout sentences.
  • Always write a site analysis in present tense
    • (e.g. The site slope is 2%. NOT The site slope was 2%).

• Avoid “filler words”
  • Like ‘also’, ‘furthermore’, and ‘in fact’. In many cases, these words just make the writing cumbersome.
    • These words should never start new paragraphs.

• Direct quotes always need page numbers in APA
  • not just when citing from academic sources, but when citing from planning reports.
  • s. If from a source with no pages, you can use the paragraph #
    • (e.g. para. 3) or just write “online” e.g. (Badger, 2019, online).

• Capitalization
  • • References to figures should be capitalized in the text
    • e.g. “As shown in Figure 2, …”

Illustrations

• Labels should be Large and Visible 
  • Tone down the background, and consider giving your labels a semitransparent background box, make the text bold, and/or a colour that distinguishes it from the
    background.

• Label as close to the object as possible
  • ie, on top.
  • EXCEPT where it would be impossible or crowded
    • then, use leader lines- but think about leader lines minimally.

• Be thoughtful and strategic in your use of colour.
  • For example, don’t make buildings green because it looks like green space.
  • Keep in mind land use mapping colour conventions when doing land use/programming conceptual illustrations like bubble diagrams.
    • For example, a hue of yellow is a great colour for showing residential areas in bubble diagrams, but would be a confusing way to show an
      industrial area or a retail area. Remember the conventional land use colours learned in PLAN 210.

• There are a lot of specific professional conventions that we’ve discussed in 211 and 210 for different
  types of drawings. But in general, ask yourself: How can I make my illustrations easier and
  quicker to understand?

Report & Text Layout Conventions

• Text should rarely (never) be centred.
• Left align or full justify blocks of text (without too many hyphens)
  • When in doubt, left align is your safest bet for readability in a report.
  • Full justify is likely a stronger choice for a block of text on a poster, but you may need to adjust the sensitivity of hyphenation (possible in paragraph settings in
    InDesign).
  • Consistency of paragraph justification within a document/poster is the main thing.

• Left align your Figure captions
  • This is so that they align with the left edge of the image (don’t centre figure captions).

• Figures should always be placed into a report at a size that is easy to read (e.g. 11 or 12 pt font), with all legend and label text visible at the size the page would be printed
  • Don’t assume a report reader (or grader) will zoom in to read text on your illustrations and maps.
  • If you need to insert a page in a landscape orientation then do that, otherwise fill your portrait page with figures so that they are legible.
    • Adobe acrobat pro can handle inserting pages at different orientations if need be.

• Align your images’ frames
  • Figures on the same page should be the same size with the outer edges of the images in alignment.
  • If you have a cluster of images that share a caption, they should be arranged in a neat grid and described in the caption in a clear way
    • (e.g. top row left to right, middle row left to right, etc.).

• Margins should be Consistent
  • And spaced as if they could be printed – so don’t go right up to the edge of the page.