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For this assignment, you will write an essay that analyzes how the design of a place sends a message to visitors about the significance of that place. The only restriction on the type of place is that it must be a physical placenot the still, quiet place in your mind, for instance, or Middle Earthbecause you will need to go there for part of the assignment; the place you choose must be a place of commerce (somewhere that you purchase products: goods, food, entertainment, etc.).

You will need to incorporate ideas and quotations from outside sources, or the recommended readings, into your essay. You need to use at least two sources. Doing so will help you participate in a larger, on-going discussion concerning what we value about the spaces we inhabit and visit. It will also help you think about how the arrangement of these spaces can be read or interpreted as a text.

Describing your place is an important first step to this assignment, but it cant be the only step. The reason that description is a necessary, but not sufficient, aspect of writing this assignment is that analysis aims to explain how something works or what something means, which is different than simply describing. And if you go to this place, you will be able to observe it better.

For instance, lets say that you decide to write about the grocery store you frequent most. You go to the store to begin collecting observations about it and notice this time that the milk and the bread are always located in the back of the store. You knew this before, but now you ask the necessary analytic question: So what? Why does it matter that the milk and the bread are in the back of the store? Wouldnt it be more convenient for them to be in the front of the store? Now, you make an inference in an attempt to answer your own question. Perhaps they are in the back of the store so you will have to walk past any number of other items you might need (or be tempted by) that you would not have to pass if the milk and bread were placed at the front near the cash registers. You then conclude that there is some kind of organization to the place that affects the way you interact with it. It is, after all, a place of commerce, a place intended to sell you things, and the owners of the store could not care less whether you buy the stuff you need or stuff you simply want.

One can see, then, that observing a place helps locate important aspects of it but cannot provide insight by itself. The insight comes from the analysis of the parts of the place and how they work together to give the place its significance, meaning, function, and overall effect on its visitors. To ask, What does a place mean? may sound like a strange question. But this is essentially what you will be doing.

Finally, explaining why you like or dislike the place you visit is not the purpose of this assignment. Assume that your audience doesnt care whether you like the place or not. Instead, assume your audience wants to know what kinds of messages are sent by the place because of the way the place is designed. Then, attempt to make a general conclusion about the essence of these messages