So anyway, I meant to post about those Online Writing Labs (OWLs) that many colleges have put online.
Their contents and quality vary widely from one college to the next. They’re intended to help students write their papers at whatever time they get around to doing them, wherever they happen to be. Good ones include online access to reference tools such as dictionaries, thesauruses, and grammar usage guides, a link to the school’s library, any formatting standards established by his school in particular, and sometimes more specific material depending on the type of student expected to be using the OWL.
Unfortunately, some schools have slapped a list of links up on a set and called it an OWL. I won’t be recommending any of those pitiful little things.
Yes, it’s perfectly fine for others to use these sites. They aren’t behind the school’s firewalls, so they are a resource that has been generously shared with the public. If you find one especially helpful, consider sending an email to the site’s authors/editors, thanking them for their efforts
- Roane State Community College
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- University of Regina — serves to support face-to-face tutorials. However, the information that is there is very interesting, so I included it.
- University of Illiois Urbana-Champagne Writer’s Workshop at The Center for Writing Studies — again, it supplements in-person tutoring and workshops. There is a fair amount of material provided online as well, though.
- Purdue University offers online and offline help. The wording on their site causes me to wonder if they originated the use of the acronym “OWL.”
- The Writing Center at Cleveland State University
