At first, I had no idea what you were talking about. But then I thought about it.

My short answer is that no, drawing from life or a photo is in fact 'drawing', not sketching. Maybe sketching is a subset of drawing, but in my mind, sketching comes from the mind (not the eyes) in order to express or explore an idea.

Maybe some people here can help out with some outside opinions or writings or whatever....

Yeah I think sketching is drawing something that is not in from of you. It's improvisation.

You know, they say that if you sketch with your opposite hand (left if you're right-handed like me) it makes the left side of your brain work and activates your imagination

I'm asking this question because some schools/employers/etc. say they want to see freehand sketches in the portfolio to send them, and I've checked several portfolio examples which had "freehand sketch" sections that seemed to basically consist of quick sketches of some object(s) in reality (e.g. buildings, people, etc.), with no creative manipulation.

maybe not using a straight edge

iphilblue, in January I started brushing my teeth with my left hand and I'm fairly serious in crediting that action with a very substantial jump in the quality of my work ever since. Maybe it's a placebo effect, I don't know, but there's no harm in trying.

There is no difference

If you want to get picky about it, I think a sketch is freehand by definition, and a drawing done using instruments. I doubt that it matters whether or not you're drawing from life, so "rough" freehand drawings of nudes would count as sketches if they are done without compasses, rulers, etc. and meant to be impressions/reminders rather than realistic depictions. If you use instruments to create a realistic, labored depiction of something, even if it's something completely imaginary, it's still a drawing.

What the schools and employers probably want to see is your ability to successfully jot down and communicate visual ideas on the fly.

there is something very appealing about n400.

Webster: Sketch; a simple, rough drawing or design, done rapidly and without much detail.

Drawing: [a representation of something] by lines made on a surface with a pencil, pen, stylus, etc.

In my experience these definitions have applied to work done in all artistic disciplines, including architecture.

It is by no means accurate to say either that a sketch cannot be made with a straightedge, nor that a drawing cannot be a freehand effort. See the thread called "Eye Candy" for examples.

Speed (or, relative brevity of time spent) seems to be the defining difference between a sketch and a drawing. Yes, life drawings can certainly be (freehand) sketches. . .

sketching is sketching...in both art and architecture, it implies a preparatory image or and image to quickly work out ideas, and to me there is no distinction there of working out the idea completely from your mind or by looking at something through your eyes (in fact, when you sketch with yellow trace over a plan or other drawing, you are working from a life source, so it very much comes through the eyes first).

a drawing can be a finished work in itself, particularly in art, but also in architecture in the form of a rendering or even a working drawing.