Editing The Pen Addict 137/transcript (section)

== Architecture Writing ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, who knows? Who knows? So, we'll see. It's a fluid situation, as they say. So, one quick point on our architecture writing talk we had a couple weeks ago.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Susan wrote in, and I kind of knew this. And I didn't explain myself clearly when I was talking about why architects write the way they do. So, Susan cleared it up very succinctly. So, let me throw this out there. She says, Hi guys, I'm an architect. And I worked back when we all hand wrote our drawings. And the point of the lettering perfection is so that all the drawings all look like they were done by the same person. So, when many draftsmen are working on a set of drawings, that no one can tell who worked on one sheet that the drawings looked uniform. So, when I started, I spent the first two weeks just lettering over and over again until it matched the head draftsman's lettering. So, that makes a lot of sense, right Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, you don't want any... Number one, you want to be able to not confuse any letters with other letters or other numbers. And number two, when you're working on a giant set of blueprints, and, you know, back in the day, before CAD and all these automated systems, you didn't want any different looking lettering causing confusion on your paperwork.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't know if you have the answer to this. Does that mean that everyone's looked the same or everyone in a certain practice looked the same?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think everyone in a certain practice looked the same. That's what Susan was saying. She spent two weeks learning the head draftsman's style.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That would super suck if you changed job.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But I think the concept is that the base style for everyone is ballpark the same. So, maybe she didn't have to learn too much, right? It's not like I have to learn your handwriting or you had to learn my handwriting. We're both learning from the same set of handwriting, but our individual lines or lettering would be slightly different. Does that make sense?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, if you and I are learning from a textbook to write the same way, our lettering is going to be close, but there might be some slight differences that would show up on paper.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that. I mean, I don't even understand how it could be possible. Like, seriously, like, I couldn't draw, like, write like somebody else. Like, in two weeks? Yeah. It feels like it would take me years. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, she's probably already had all the training in school. And that's what I'm saying. She's already had, like, by the time she's getting to that point, she's already had a huge amount of training in general, right? So, now she just has to fine-tune what she already has to match her office, her office style, I guess, if you will. So, all right, this next question is interesting, Myke. And this one's for you. Why don't you read this one?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, yeah, this question came in to me via email from listener Anne. And Anne wanted to know, because, you know, we were talking about having, like, additional notebooks lying around, and people would say, why don't you make them to journals? And me and you have both said we don't journal.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And we're going to elaborate on this later.