ABSTRACT
In comparing the role of writing in the educational programs of the professional disciplines, we would expect it to make a difference that architecture is, in the end, about nonverbal processes. What finally results from architectural practice is a material structure, a new or modified building. It is true that what ultimately happens as a result of activities in law and government, business management and social work is likewise material and is not confined to the epistemic realm of ideas; the verbal outputs of these professionals will impel or enable people to do things or impede or prevent their doing things. The foreseen outcomes of these practices, however, are mainly quite general and unspecific; although there are exceptions (e.g., a court order requiring an adolescent to be taken into custody), the practitioner, as a rule, is not able to envision as the outcome a particular event or act that will occur in a particular time or place. By contrast, the product of architecture is of unusual specificity and materiality.
