Reflexive Summary – Edward Fung
To me…
Writing has never been an enjoyable task honestly. Even if I feel confident and well-versed in the discussed topics, I often find it daunting when sitting in front of a blank sheet, struggling to translate my thoughts into coherent words and sentences. Fortunately, I do have some experience with academic blog writing, due to last year’s M.Arch module – Tools of Thinking. The format is similar to this urban design blog entries. The module was based around a series of lectures that have key theme words every week, and the task requires me to reflect on either these themes, lectures themselves or related issues, and write a reflective academic blog post.
To structure the contents…
These exercises have definitely helped me to structure my thoughts more clearly and concisely. However, I continue to struggle with a persistent bad habit to meticulously craft every word and sentence ‘perfectly’ right from the start. I often become fixated on finding the ‘most appropriate’ wording and ‘most fluent’ sentence structure. The need and urge for precision and perfection consequently slows down the flow of my writing process and often leads to frustration.
One technique I then use is to simply write whatever that comes to mind, without worrying about the quality of words, but only to fill the blank page with sufficient bullet points and key ideas. Once I have laid out most of the ideas, I then return to revise and piece everything together ensuring better cohesion. However, it usually then triggers another frustrating experience regarding the succinctness of the content.
To be casual yet academic…
Blog writing usually adopts a casual tone, with the intent to allow readers with an easy and quick glance. In contrast, the academic writing requires a formal language, rigorous referencing, and well-supported arguments. While combining the two creates an interesting dynamic, but it also complicates the writing process. Balancing the informal, conversational style of writing of a blog with the seriousness of academic paper is not an easy task.
Despite the challenge, with experience from last year, I do gradually find myself preferring the academic blog format. The casualness and the freedom of expression from blogs, blended with thoroughly researched and supported references, allows me to present my ideas more easily and with much stronger clarity.
To be critical…
One bright side to these writing exercises is that they truly have encouraged me to foster a critical thinking mindset. They provided the opportunity to reflect on a wide range of issues, whether it be economic, social, political, cultural or environmental matters. The series of thinking and processing, allows me to gain a deeper understanding on the workings of the world in various dimensions, the nuances and intricacies. Certainly, it has helped me develop a more well-rounded view, which significantly enriched my design thinking process, and enabled me to present a much more profound design thesis, one that is layered by the complexities that shaped our world.
