Online Writing Lab
Encyclopedia
An Online Writing Lab is often an extension of a university writing center
. Online writing labs offer help to students and other writers by providing literacy
materials, such as handouts and slide presentations
. Writers may also submit questions electronically for feedback. Many OWLs are open to people unaffiliated with the specific institution. Online writing labs play an important part in writing center assistance because they allow writers to use some of the center’s resources remotely.
Purdue University
in West Lafayette, Indiana
, USA launched the first OWL in 1994.
-based service designed to assist learners in their rhetorical writing processes. Harris began the Writing Lab by collaborating with a team of graduate assistants, who worked one-to-one with student writers and often developed handouts to reinforce the lessons the students learned in the Writing Lab. The writing tutors and Harris sent paper copies of their materials to individuals beyond Purdue University who contacted the Writing Lab requesting information on writing, citation, or research. Later, these resources became available electronically through email
requests and through GOPHER
in 1993, a precursor to the World Wide Web
. Harris and the Purdue Writing Lab launched its OWL on the web in 1995, making it one of the first OWLs on the Internet. Having made its library of resources available electronically, the Purdue OWL is now accessed by millions of users worldwide.
Writing Center
Many educational institutions maintain a writing center that provides students with free assistance on their papers, projects, reports, multimodal documents, web pages, et cetera from consultants. A key goal of any writing center is helping writers to learn...
. Online writing labs offer help to students and other writers by providing literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
materials, such as handouts and slide presentations
Overhead projector
An overhead projector is a variant of slide projector that is used to display images to an audience.-Mechanism:An overhead projector typically consists of a large box containing a very bright lamp and a fan to cool it. On top of the box is a large fresnel lens that collimates the light...
. Writers may also submit questions electronically for feedback. Many OWLs are open to people unaffiliated with the specific institution. Online writing labs play an important part in writing center assistance because they allow writers to use some of the center’s resources remotely.
Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
in West Lafayette, Indiana
West Lafayette, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 29,596 people, 12,591 households, and 3,588 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,381.1 people per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 74.3% White, 17.3% Asian, 2.7% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.03% Pacific...
, USA launched the first OWL in 1994.
OWL history
In 1976, the Department of English at Purdue University asked Dr. Muriel "Mickey" Harris to establish its Writing Lab, a campusCampus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
-based service designed to assist learners in their rhetorical writing processes. Harris began the Writing Lab by collaborating with a team of graduate assistants, who worked one-to-one with student writers and often developed handouts to reinforce the lessons the students learned in the Writing Lab. The writing tutors and Harris sent paper copies of their materials to individuals beyond Purdue University who contacted the Writing Lab requesting information on writing, citation, or research. Later, these resources became available electronically through email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
requests and through GOPHER
Gopher
- Animal kingdom :* Gopher , including:** Pocket gophers , about 40 species distributed from North America to Colombia** Several ground squirrels of North America, particularly those formerly classified as Spermophilus* Gopher tortoise , distributed in North America- Other uses :* Minnesota, the...
in 1993, a precursor to the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. Harris and the Purdue Writing Lab launched its OWL on the web in 1995, making it one of the first OWLs on the Internet. Having made its library of resources available electronically, the Purdue OWL is now accessed by millions of users worldwide.