Blog 54: My Top All-Time Blog Posts on Planning Education

When the Planetizen team set up the Interchange blog section in early 2007 they invited half a dozen academics, and dozens of others, to blog. This is my 54th entry in that (monthly) series. I’m about to start dealing with some new topics--like big ideas in planning--but thought I should do a little research to see which of my past blogs people have been reading.

4 minute read

July 13, 2011, 9:35 AM PDT

By Ann Forsyth

When the Planetizen team set up the Interchange blog section in early 2007 they invited half a dozen academics, and dozens of others, to blog. This is my 54^th entry in that (monthly) series. I'm about to start dealing with some new topics--like big ideas in planning--but thought I should do a little research to see which of my past blogs people have been reading.

As I've described earlier, I needed an angle that didn't compete with other blogs my own scholarly publications, topical web site, and blog. So I decided to use the blog to answer questions students ask, and deal with problems they face. I have aimed it at undergraduate and masters students because Martin Kreiger does a great job for doctoral students. On balance the time it takes to write these entries I save later on--it makes advising sessions with my own students more focused.

The Planetizen staff have been surprisingly hands off. I've never had them comment on a blog. When I asked for statistics on my entries so I could see what people were reading they were helpful in providing the figures, but they had to run the numbers as they didn't have them routinely to hand.

So what are people reading? Unsurprisingly the top all time blogs reflect interest in deciding whether to be a planner, getting into graduate school, doing well in school (time management, theses, finding images), and getting a job. Views range from over 6,000 to over 10,000.

Top 10 Blog Entries by Total Views

1. Applying to Graduate School in Planning: Writing a Good Statement of Purpose

2. Skills in Planning: The Planning Portfolio

3. Graduate School 2008: Nuts and Bolts of Applying

4. Deciding if You Want to be a Planner

5. Images for Planning: Free Internet Resources

6. Skills in Planning: The Time vs. Quality Opportunity Curve

7. Getting Started on an Exit Project or Thesis in Planning

8. Tips on Gainful Unemployment for New Planners

9. Finding a First Job in Planning

10. Common Problems with Proposals for the Exit Project or Thesis in Planning

Two others almost made this list, and are not on any of those below. Defining the Planning Skill Set: Resources for Students and Truly Great Teachers: Remembering Peter Marris both deal in different ways with the important planning skills of communicating, understanding needs, being responsible, having political savvy, and engaging with important issues.

Of course some of these entries are four years old, giving plenty of time to accumulate "views," so I thought I'd look at views per month. These have a different bias--toward recent blogs--because a lot of blog views are in the first month or so. On average each of the 54 blogs has been viewed over 260 times per month, every month it has been up. Of course in the first month entries may be viewed some thousands of times and viewing drops off after that. Only one--writing a good statement of purpose--is in the top of both total views and views per month. However a couple--whether to do a PhD and one on planning history--are in the top 20 total views as well as making the list of many views per month.

Top 10 Blog Entries by Views per Month

1. I've Graduated, Now What?

2. Obtaining Letters of Reference for Graduate School in Planning

3. Should I do a PhD in Planning? (top 20 total views)

4. Summer Conferences with an Agenda: Ideas for Students and Others

5. Managing Time in Graduate School

6. Internet Presence for Job Candidates

7. Applying to Graduate School in Planning: Writing a Good Statement of Purpose (top 10 total views)

8. Planning History: A Few of the Late 19th and 20th Century Places you Should Know (top 20 total views)

9. Planning History: A Few of the City and Metropolitan Plans You Should Know

10. Planning Processes: Some Resources

In addition to the entries in the lists above I also refer students to some other posts--and I limited myself to 10, not in any particular order.

My Additional 10

If Paul Davidoff has Email Should I Write?
Skills in Planning: Writing Literature Reviews
So You Want to Change the World, Part 1: Networking for Students (and Others)
So You Want to Change the World, Part 2: Finding the Right Planning Program
Summer Reading about Planning: The Basics
Reflecting on Planning and the Planet: Summer Readings that Help You Think
Planning Experience before Graduate School?
Making Sense of Information: Using Sources in Planning School
Plans, Places, and Processes: Do You Need to Travel to Understand Them?
Finishing the Exit Project in Planning (which is cheating a bit because the entry has links to a whole series on the topic and I refer students to the whole list).

This blog entry evokes the name of one of my favorite web sites, about train travel: http://www.seat61.com/.

Ann Forsyth

Trained in planning and architecture, Ann Forsyth is a professor of urban planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. From 2007-2012 she was a professor of city and regional planning at Cornell. She taught previously at at the University of Minnesota, directing the Metropolitan Design Center (2002-2007), Harvard (1999-2002), and the University of Massachusetts (1993-1999) where she was co-director of a small community design center, the Urban Places Project. She has held short-term positions at Columbia, Macquarie, and Sydney Universities.

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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