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Online Writing Labs

These On-Line Writing Labs (OWLs) provide valuable information and services that the LC is not able to offer. For instance, many OWLs offer on-line tutoring to students at their home colleges or universities and to writers everywhere. Others offer an enormous selection of materials on writing, including (but not limited to) punctuation, documentation, and grammar. Since we aren't able to create our own version of these OWLs, our writing materials focus on writing at Guilford while still providing access to these resources. What follows is a list of OWLs that we've found particularly useful as well as our comments and descriptions of their services.

Purdue University's On-Line Writing Lab

Purdue University's OWL is the online wing of their face-to-face Writing Lab and offers a variety of resources that anyone can use, including e-mailing your paper in to be read by one of their tutors, research guides and resources, grammar guides and lists of even more writing center sites.

An extensive site, the Purdue OWL contains approximately 150 pages, including 130 "handouts" and exercises available for public use. These documents are original to the Purdue Writing Lab and cover a range to topics including: general writing concerns; grammar, punctuation and spelling; research paper, job search and professional writing; and English as a Second Language. Purdue's pointers to other internet sources lead you to indexes for writers, guides to style and editing, business and technical writing, children and writing, professional organizations, and listserv groups. Finally, this OWL aids in web research by providing links to search tools and selected directories and indexes for research.

The Roane State Community College Online Writing Lab

While RSCC's OWL is smaller and more specialized than Purdue's, it offers some useful material and links. Resource categories include "Composition and Documentation," "Editing, Grammar, and Punctuation," "Nursing: Home Health and Transition Papers," and "Articles," apparently written by RSCC writing center staff. The "Composition and Documentation" category includes discussion of different types of papers, such as cause and effect, descriptive, evaluation, and narrative essays. The editing pages address such issues as sexist language, misused words, and prepositions and idioms.

In addition to these materials, the RSCC OWL provides links to other OWLs, various writing resources (including a list of annoying proverbs/cliches), Library of Congress pages, community college and university links.

 

Using Inclusive Language

The language we choose is extremely important. One thing we find essential is choosing language that doesn't alienate or exclude people. The following are links to Websites that focus on inclusive language:

  • Language matters
    This site from the University of Sydney, Australia, explains the whys and wherefores of gender-, race-, and disability- focused inclusive language.
  • Alternatives to sexist Language
    A Hamilton College student offers some practical ideas, as well as an extensive bibliography dealing with gender and language.

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