Resource of the Week: Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

When we posted the Purdue Online Writing Lab’s Top Five Grammar Requests a week or so ago, I couldn’t help but note that “use of the apostrophe” was missing from this list. Which figures, I guess. Those who know me fairly well also know that apostrophe abuse is something that bugs me no end. No surprise that people don’t even bother to ask. They just go right ahead and…abuse.

OK, so this is my personal idiosyncrasy (along with im/proper use of the semicolon). But after we posted this query list, Gary and I realized that we’d never featured OWL as a Resource of the Week, even though it’s been around since you had to connect to the Internet with Dixie cups and string.

OK, so we’re exaggerating…but just a little. As the original website says, “Purdue’s OWL has been serving the Purdue community and the rest of the world over the Internet since 1993.” The OWL Fact Sheet pegs 1994 as its year of inception. At any rate, how many other Internet resources can you name that have been around that long?

OWL has only gotten richer with time. It is now a “family of sites,” still directed primarily (but not exclusively) toward those in the academic community. Says the fact sheet, “The OWL has grown into a popular web site that received over 84 million hits from over 125 countries in 2006-2007. OWL tutors answered over 5,000 writing-related queries via e-mail, and over 14,900 users are subscribed to the Purdue OWL News, a free weekly e-newsletter.” And before you ask, the answer is no, you don’t have to be a member of the Purdue community to request writing help by e-mail. Graduate instructors, all experienced writing teachers, are standing by to help you. While they aren’t actually able to edit or proofread your documents, they “will happily answer questions about grammar so you can find and fix your own errors.” In the absence of an Internet connection, you can call the OWL hotline at 765-494-3723.

OWL is easy to navigate; click the plus sign next to each item in the list on the right side of the page to access an excellent collection of succinct, well-written (of course) tutorials by category — The Writing Process (including what to do about “writer’s block”); Professional, Technical, and Job Search Writing (including writing for Chinese, North American, and Indian business audiences); General Academic Writing; Research and Citation (both APA and MLA are covered in detail); Grammar and Mechanics; English as a Second Language; Internet Literacy (including information on documenting electronic resources); Writing in the Social Sciences; Writing in Engineering; Literary Analysis and Criticism; Creative Writing; Teaching Writing; and Tutoring Writing. The site is keyword searchable via a box on the home page.

To get the most out of this site, take a look at Help Using OWL Resources, which introduces you to a toolbar that you will find on each resource. The toolbar includes buttons that allow you to:

* display all sections of a handout for easy printing
* request making copies for a class, workshop, etc. (copyright/fair use info)
* tell the OWL staff about your link to our pages (not required, but they’d like to hear from you)
* report a typographical or other content error
* offer general feedback and comments to the OWL staff

Since 2004, OWL has been undergoing extensive revision; material from the original site is being incorporated into the new site, along with fresh content. You can help by participating in a usability survey.

How can you not love this site? We think there’s truly something here for all of our ResourceShelf readers — students, teachers, librarians, journalists, business folks, attorneys, technology wranglers… Even if your job does not revolve around written communication, we know that if you’re one of us, you are writing e-mails, letters or memos, white papers or other types of reports. And probably the occasional resume as well.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 and is filed under Best of DocuTicker, Resources for Educators, Source File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.