More questions than answers:

- graduate school in architecture as a first timer, with an unrelated background?

- can you write well if it were a conventional essay, such as in a technical writing or business communications course?

- why aren't you getting feedback?  If anything, professors are supposed to be more accessible to grad students, of which there are fewer, compared to the number of undergrads.

In my opinion, a lot of it has to do with making a mental shift toward these esoteric concepts.  I had a similar experience with a philosophy class I took in undergrad, but just applied my interpretations of what I read.  Write about it from the heart.  You might try that and see how it works.  Also, talk to the prof.

Read, Read, Read.  Diagram what you read so understand it in its methodological form of argument, not just the content. 

Learn to be more critical and polemical in your writing.  By this, you will always need to introduce pro-con to the point of views to demonstrate judgement.

Include primary sources in your writing.

1. On help: part of the job of faculty is providing adequate feedback of student work, especially in a graduate program.  Most of your classmates will not seek more than whatever is written on the assignment when it's handed back.  So this leaves time for those interested in additional, detailed feedback (you).  Make an appointment with the prof, bring your paper, and ask for more help.  (If it's a TA, try the same thing, but go over their head to the prof if they aren't sufficiently helpful.)  Present your query as you did above: you're looking for help and feedback, not a defense of the grade they gave you.
2. On writing: start off well.  I'm frequently dismayed at how many of my students don't take the time to get the basics correct on form (spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, pagination, length, format, deadline, etcetera) or content (subject matter, themes, questions to address, etcetera).  That is, they don't pay sufficient attention and complete the assignment.  I'd wager that a third of my students would get half- to a full grade higher if they just followed all of the assignment's instructions-- forgetting any attempts at brilliance in theory, polemics, or esoterica.  These last aspects are great, but don't substitute for basic skills.

Since you're interested enough to ask here, follow through there where you are.  My hunch is that your prof's will be willing to help silence the "squeaky wheel."

Also, ask the prof if they're willing to read and comment on an early draft.  Many will say no, but it's worth asking.  Of course, this strategy this means getting an early enough start to produce a decent draft a week or more before the deadline... pretty tough alongside studio work.  Still, it's one more approach...

If they say no to that, you might still ask for an appointment a week or more before the deadline and show up with an outline and your (already-considered) thoughts on what you plan to write.  My students who do even this minor step usually benefit from some basic guidance up front.

How did you even get into graduate school without knowing how to write??

- dont't answer that- 

its not your lack of knowing how to write that may be the problem- you may just not know how to write critically with respect to the content of what you are reading... Perhaps you are missing something when you are writing/responding about something in your essays/paper that your professor wants you to take away...

I highly doubt many prof's out there would waste their time correcting little typo's or grammar mistakes... You are studying architecture (I presume)- not English! :)

How did you even get into graduate school without knowing how to write??

- dont't answer that-

Sometimes, I don't really know if you are a little shit, or just like playing one.  By the way, you spelled don't incorrectly.

Im on my iphone- what do you expect? Haha...I have a few publications so I just offered my two cents... Read the rest of what I wrote. 

Oh and observant- 

even though I was sarcastic and joking, I will ask you a serious question:

The whole point of having stages of education and marking graduation from one stage into the next, is to prove proficiency and/or mastery in certain material/fields of study... Do you agree?

i dont care what you study (you can major in "happiness" as some guy did at NYU's Gallatin school did for all I care) or simply have a high school diploma; once you graduate from high school, you need to know how to read, write, and do basic math; once you graduate from college, you need to have become proficient in constructing an argument and analyzing information; and once you are in graduate school, you synthesize your skills to offer something new to the field you are studying...

otherwise, degrees and diplomas mean shit...

Here's the article in the new york times about majors lile "happiness" and "love."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/thechoice/2012/02/07/degrees-are-getting-a-makeover/

and here's the wiki article on "social promotion."

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_promotion

^^

I don't know if I agree or not.  We're looking at context here.  You seem to dislike graduate education, so I don't know if I'm wasting keystrokes.  However, in law, health sciences, and even business (MBA), graduate work is the norm.  The engineer who goes to law school has one hell of an adjustment to make, but he or she may have been an excellent technical writer within the realm of engineering.  The psychology major who goes for b-school has another big adjustment to make, from talking about the human condition to talking about the "well being" of corporate entities which shit on the human condition, and each other.  We don't know if the OP is in a graduate program from (a) an unrelated background, or from (b) an undergraduate program where their portfolio spoke for them and their transcript was not scoured for evidence of verbal ability.  I knew engineers in a-school who struggled with expressing themselves in architectural terms.  In my mind, it's because they put up a wall.  However, if you embrace what you are learning, this shouldn't be so hard.  I didn't have a problem writing architectural essays and came to it from another field - and I KNOW you don't like that!

Haha- just to be clear: I dont dislike graduate degrees... In certain instances I think its ineffective and overpriced... I'll respond in more detail later...

mellifluent obscurantism.

As promised, Observant, here is my response to your comment ^^

It doesn't matter what background you come from, because when it comes to writing, it's not about style- it's about content. To put it in your terms, an engineer who is excellent in technical writing and opinionated about politics doesn't write a technical Facebook feed/post or Tweet on the elections (for example).... And although I know Facebook and twitter are not the paradigm I wish to compare serious academic writing to, such a comparison serves to illustrate my argument that people forget that writing assignments are not about trying to emulate the style of the author(s) they have been reading/studying, but rather, are about simply responding to issues that such authors present... I used to think that "scholarly writing" was dry and sophisticated because of the fancy vocabulary such scholars used... Look at Martin Heidegger for example... I used to loath dissecting his highly sophisticated, and yet intensely verbose explanation of the relevance and overall effect of technology on architecture.... Then, I read some Hemingway and realized how simple writing can be while retaining its efficacy and power. Look at Koolhaus' essay on Junkspace (for example)... He is totally sarcastic and uses alarming vocabulary to make his point... But when I respond to his works, I don't use such vocabulary...  I filter my words, focus my argument, and respond to his points in an intelligent manner just like a blogger (no pun intended) or journalist may do on a serious issue taken over in social media... These are the basics that you learn about in college...not in graduate school...

Now, don't get me wrong- I don't dislike graduate education... But those that slip through the cracks are wasting their money... Because they will be more distracted by why they struggle with writing and other basic skills that they should have learned in undergrad, than with perfecting their true skills as future designers and architects (in this case).

I have a two pronged attitude toward this argument.  First, you should learn to write as if you were a liberal arts or social science major, irrespective of what major you will take.  Second, you should learn to write in a manner appropriate for your field - whether it is commercial, technical, subjective, or some combination of those things.

I went into a reasonably quantitative curriculum initially with college board scores having a stronger performance in verbal than in math, but then, I was an avid reader.  If anything, I really enjoyed the journalistic style found in the auto magazines, which I devoured, since it employs its own brand of wordsmithing.  On the GRE, the math scored sort of evened up.

The point is that one starts with a baseline in their writing, and expands from there.  That's why there are typically two English courses seen during freshman year of college.