Frequently Asked Questions

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What is the attendance policy?

Your university experience draws a bright line between your younger self and your professional adult existence. Your professor takes attendance for perhaps different reasons from your other teachers. You do not have to answer to me, because I am not your boss, your parent, or your watcher. Indeed, you should never apologize to me for being absent, nor should you send an email to me about your absence. Please review the guide, “How to Write an Effective Email.” My unremarkable hypothesis based on experience is that there is a positive correlation between focused attention on the present “now” and our future success. Professional people who are present and alert when there is a learning opportunity are more likely to understand, ask intelligent questions, and competently complete the work. The reason I keep attendance is to promote that idea of “showing up,” being your best self, and doing competent work. Here is the policy from the syllabus:

1. Each student is allowed three “free” absences. If you use these judiciously, then you should be covered for illness, family emergency, broken down car, etc.
2. Attendance is worth 10% of your grade and is calculated as the percentage of P/(T-3) ≤ 100%; where P=∑ number of times present, and T=∑ number of total classes.
3. If a student misses more than five consecutive lectures or recitations, then the student should consult with the academic advisor and consider withdrawing from the course.

Does this course have a required textbook?

This question is answered in the syllabus, but your professor also believes you might like some further explanation. The required textbook is as follows:

Inglert, E. 2024. Contemporary Practices in Architectural Drawing and Illustration. Volume I. 1st ed. Cognella.

It is available at the inluded link for either print ($87.95) or eBook($80.95). The least expensive and perhaps best option for most of you is the eBook. You will no doubt have other courses with expensive required textbooks. At the end of the semester you might be asking, “Did we use that textbook as much as I thought we would?” In the past, I had required textbooks that did not cover all the material. I supplemented other texts, and we did not use “every page” of the required textbook. That frustrated me, and I’m sure caused my past students to question its value. As you can infer, I wrote this book specifically for this class. Every assignment that we do is in the book. Every lecture I give is based on the written text in this book. You should plan to buy the book, because you will use it everyday in my class.

How do I submit my assignment to Canvas?

For each assignment that we do I’ll create a Canvas “Quiz.” There will often be just one “Question.” This is a file upload button. There are several ways where this can go wrong. The thing to remember is that you should receive an acknolwedgment that your file was uploaded successfully. If after your attempt the screen reports “unanswered” then you should make another attempt until you receive the following acknowledgment: “Submitted.” A live example was shown during lecture Class 01-2 on 27 Aug 2025. Check the recording and scrub the video to the example if you still have questions.

What are three different ways to resize an image?

When you take a photograph from your phone the default image is very much too large in size. My iPhone 11 Pro Max defaults to 4032px X 3024px at a resolution of 72 ppi and a file size over 4Mb. The size needed to fill the screen of your monitor (i.e., 2k HD) is only 1920px x 1080px. Resizing an image can often result in much lower file sizes (i.e. < 0.5Mb) and faster load times. When I write a quiz for you, I am very specific about the max size upload I’m requesting. The very first assignment (i.e., Ex 1) for instance asks for a file size that is “full size screen resolution.” How is that calculated?

If you are physically drawing on a sheet that is 11” x 14” and if the screen resolution is assumed to be 72 ppi, then the calculation is as follows: 14” x 72 ppi = 1008 px for the length and 11” x 72 ppi = 792 px. Now that you understand a little about file dimensions, then you should be asking “how do I resize an image?” There is no easy way to do this on your phone without a specialized app. Let’s take the problem to our computer.

File -> Document Properties -> Resize to content
File -> Export -> Page -> Width 1008 or Height 792 (whichever controls to fit within 1008 x 792)
While still within export tab, change the filename and filetype (i.e. PNG)
Export

What is the late assignment policy?

Assignment due dates are critical. Late assignments will NOT be accepted, and the late work shall earn a “0” grade. Just as in the architecture and engineering professions, deadlines are firm. If a person is feeling ill or called away due to an emergency, then often there is a cost to the whole team. You will complete many assignments for this course, and missing one or two due to difficult personal circumstances should not cause too much harm to your grade.

Only the following two exceptions shall apply to this statement:

1. 90% potential credit if turned in less than 24 hrs. after due date/time.
2. 50% potential credit if turned in before the end of one week from the due date.

Examples

1. You are part of the marching band. That is an important part of your college experience. You are scheduled in two weeks to go on a trip that will cause you to miss one lecture and one recitation (i.e., studio.) Please refer also to Attendance question above. Looking at our class schedule you see that an assignment is due when you are away too. You have three choices according to the policy.
   1. Turn your assignment in early and before the deadline for 100% potential credit.
   2. Turn your assignment in late but before it disappears from Canvas (exactly one week from deadline) for either the listed 90% or 50% exception.
   3. Fail to turn in the assignment and promise to do a better job next time and take a “0.”
2. You started feeling ill over the weekend. By the time the busy week arrived, you were in bed with a fever. No way should you go to class and risk harm to yourself or to others. As you continue to feel worse you realize that one of your projects is due, and there is no way that you can make the deadline. You resign yourself to hoping that you begin to feel better tomorrow, so that you can finish and turn in your project. Even if it is two days after the deadline, then you know you can get as much as 50% potential credit for your work. So long as this is not a habit for you, then as they say in basketball, “no harm no foul.”
3. Your very expensive computer started to make some unhealthy fan noises. You worry about the project that you’ve spent so much time completing. You have paid close attention to your professor’s ideas about backing up your work. All the same, you’ll need a computer to finish the work. Here is a very important professional principle: A problem with your tools is not a legitimate reason for missing a deadline. Unfortunately, bad luck happens to us all. Your backup plan for completing the work is finding a computer lab on campus or borrowing a friend’s machine.

How to Write More Effective Emails

Everyone could do a better job writing effective emails. Your professor included! Since email is the dominant communication mode for business as well as the academy, it is important to write effectively. Effective email writing has been defined as clear, concise, and productive. Stein 2022.

You should identify what actions you want from your email. Limit your Cc: list to only those critical few who need the information. Write the subject line as the main question you seek to answer. After a professional greeting, write in simple active voice sentences. Make sure you indicate when you would want an answer, and do not expect everyone can meet your last-minute deadline! Most of the time it makes sense to seek answers to one or two questions. Having this personal discipline to challenge yourself to a word limit of for instance one hundred words shows that you respect the time of your email recipient. Favor data attachments over inline and embedded text, because many of your readers will only skim the body text.

How about the hundreds of emails you get every day? It is important to have a personal deadline for answering emails sent to you, especially from colleagues and friends. Twenty-four hours is a standard. If you send an email, and your recipient has missed responding in a timely fashion, here is my best personal advice that may seem to some of you to be at the limit of impertinent: Forward the message that you previously sent and replace the “Fw:” in the subject line with the words, “Second request:” Ignoring emails from colleagues and friends is from my observations, since my first email address in 1989, a mistake that leads to professional and personal failure. The corollary of this principle is that long, poorly focused emails are likely to get you ignored!

Proofread once. Do it again. One more time before you hit the send button!

Bibliography

Stein, S. (2022, August 10). 5 tips for writing professional emails. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2022/08/5-tips-for-writing-professional-emails