2020

August 12, 2020: One final summer update:

• The second workshop of the summer is now online. This video, which is intended for graduate students, describes strategies for responding to editorial feedback on scholarly writing.
• We've added translated APA 7 resources to the Spanish-language portion of our site (which is still in beta form)!
• Check our new guide to literature reviews, assembled from previously unpublished projects by veteran developer Rachel Atherton.

July 1, 2020: A few updates on the video front:

• As remote instruction continues through the summer, we're making an effort to record the Writing Lab's remote workshops and make them available to the public. The first workshop of the summer, which covers strategies for crafting winning resumes and CVs, is now online.
• We've also shared five videos from the Writing Lab's recent Intensive Writing Experience (IWE), which focuses on the writing graduate students typically need to do to finish their degrees (e.g., dissertation writing). Those videos can be found in this playlist.

June 24, 2020: This week, we have three more exciting new resources for you!

• Check out our latest OWL Conversation piece examining the sudden switch to remote teaching from a Purdue student's perspective. This excellent essay gives voice to a variety of concerns that instructors would be wise not to overlook as remote, hybrid, and online courses become more widespread.
• Two new remote teaching resources made their debut earlier this week: Teleconferencing in the Writing Classsroom (Rachel Atherton) and Cloud-Based Platforms in the Writing Classroom (Garrett Colón). Both pages detail how free, widely available technology can be used to create edifying experiences for students in remote classrooms.

June 18, 2020: While we've recently been focusing on publishing content related to remote teaching, we haven't stopped working on other resources, either. Here are two new things we've just put out:

• First, check out our brand-new classroom-sized poster: "Should I Cite This?" The poster contains a flowchart that helps student writers decide when to cite (and when not to). Thanks to veteran developer Rachel Atheron for her work on this project.
• We've also just published a short resource on time management entitled "Conquering Long Assignments." Thanks to Johnay Hall for this piece.

June 11, 2020: Writing teachers and administrators take note: we've recently updated our YouTube channel's WCOnline Tutorial playlist with three new videos intended for student users new to the WCO platform. Thanks to Kim Broughton, Tony Bushner, Daschielle Louis, Heather Murton, and the rest of the OWL staff for these wonderful videos.

June 2, 2020: Today, we're directing your attention to three separate pieces our wonderful developers have put out recently:

• First, check out our latest OWL Conversation, which gives a writing instructor's perspective on the recent shift to online instruction in the wake of COVID-19. This piece is the first submission (of hopefully many) from Garrett Colón.
• Then, you might peruse Technology in the Writing Classroom, which describes the relationships between composition technologies and writing instruction and provides a variety of practical suggestions for teachers looking to adopt these technologies. This piece is written by veteran developer Rachel Atherton.
• Finally, don't miss the most recent addition to our remote teaching resources: Discussion Forum Practices for Writing Classes, written by Johnay Hall (another first-timer)!

May 29, 2020: The OWL  is proud to announce that we've begun to share Spanish-language versions of some of our most popular resources in our new "OWL en Español" section. As of right now, we've made a selection of pages on MLA style available, but we're planning to publish APA resources soon as well. Note that these resources are currently in beta form—that is, they aren't final translations, and they may change in the future. Even so, we hope you find them helpful.

May 4, 2020: We've added even more resources to our new Remote Teaching Resources section. If you're struggling to coordinate peer review activities in your online classroom, you might check out our Remote Peer Review Strategies page, which includes an awesome sample assignment prompt. If you're looking for more general information about shifting offline assignments to the digital realm, see our new Adapting Projects to Online Classrooms page. Major thanks to the talented Rachel Atherton for both of these pages. Even more to come in the near future!

Apr. 29, 2020: We've added a few more resources to our new Remote Teaching Resources section, which is intended to help teachers as they modify their courses in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The first, Activities for Remote Creative Writing Classes, gives teachers ideas for low-stakes creative writing activities that can easily be administered through online learning platforms. The second, Writing Prompts for Analyzing Fiction, is intended to help teachers guide students in online literature classrooms gain a deeper understanding of fictional texts. Our sincerest thanks to the Writing Lab's own Paul Riker, who created both of these resources. More to come in the near future.

Apr. 21, 2020: We've begun to upload content to our new Remote Teaching Resources section. Our first new page, Sharing and Presenting Work in Remote Classrooms, comes from the Writing Lab's Kelsey Martin. The page offers general guidelines and suggestions for conducting activities that require students to share work with each other in remote classes. Two other resources, Writing Prompts for Analyzing Nonfiction and Nonfiction Analysis Framework, are intended to give remote instructors ideas for helping students understand nonfiction writing through critical analysis. These pages come courtesy of the Writing Lab's Sungae Kim. We hope you find all three pages helpful. There will be more to come soon.

Apr. 14, 2020: K-12 teachers may want to bookmark the OWL's new Remote Teaching Resources section, which we'll be adding to in the coming days. Our first page in this section provides links to a variety of resources on the OWL and elsewhere that can help writing instructors of all stripes adapt to remote teaching. Look for more content along these lines soon!

Apr. 6, 2020: If you're affiliated with a writing center or tutoring organization on your campus, you may be interested to in our new series of WCOnline tutorial videos. These videos were developed in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has forced the Purdue Writing Lab to shift its operations online for the remainder of the Spring 2020 term. They cover the basics of how to use the WCOnline platform to plan tutoring sessions, administer feedback, and more. We're also planning more for the near future, so stay tuned!

Feb. 6, 2020: While we're proud of all our new APA 7 resources, one special standout is our new Reference List: Audiovisual Media page, which was penned by the one and only Katie McMorris. This page has no APA 6 equivalent—it's brand-new content, written from scratch.

2019

Dec. 10, 2019: Want to learn about the origins of the OWL? Want to meet some of the hundreds of students and teachers whose hard work keep the site running? Look no further than our recently-released anniversary retrospective video, which unites OWL associates young and old for a series of reflections stretching back to 1994.

Nov. 18, 2019: This year, the OWL is thankful for all of the teachers and students who have paid us a visit in 2019. As a token of our appreciation, please accept this previously-unreleased vidcast on the essentials of argument. Warning: do not apply the lessons in this video at your family's Thanksgiving gathering. Thanks to Libby Chernouski, Priya Sirohi, and Tony Bushner for doing such great work on the video.

Nov. 13, 2019: Not sure how to introduce a key quotation or paraphrase on that end-of-semester paper you've been putting off? You're in luck: we've just added a short guide to writing effective signal phrases. Thanks to developer Maggie Myers for yet another great piece!

Nov. 5, 2019: The OWL thanks the prolific and talented Katie McMorris for her overhaul of our Research Overview resources. In addition to revising these pages for accuracy and thoroughness, Katie brings us a brand-new page on synthesizing sources. Wow! Whether you're a student starting work on a research paper or a teacher looking to explain a research unit to your students, you should find food for thought in these updated resources.

Nov. 1, 2019: University faculty and administrators are invited to peruse our newly updated Faculty Guides page, which contains detailed instructions for helping both graduate students and multilingual writers improve their writing. Our thanks to Vicki Kennell  and Michael Wakolbinger for this outstanding update.

Oct. 10, 2019:  Many thanks to the OWL's Maggie Myers for starting our Style Manual Glossary. This resource explains the research, citation, and style terminology you've always wanted to learn, but were too afraid to ask about. Look for additional entries to be added in the future!

Oct. 1, 2019:  The OWL Vidcast series has recently adopted a new format, and we've got two new videos to show it off! In our first new video, Bianca explains the tricky grammatical concept of Parallel Structure. Then, Gabriel, the newest member of the OWL family, takes the helm in our first video targeted at English language learners: Learning English Grammar: Singular/Plural Oddities.

Sep. 11, 2019:  OWL content developers have been hard at work this summer editing our citation guides to ensure their accuracy. They've also written some new material to fill in a few small gaps we found. For instance, developer Mac Boyle has penned a brand-new resource on Bluebook citation practices, which the Chicago Manual of Style recommends for legal sources. Thanks, Mac!

Aug. 28, 2019:  The OWL offers its heartfelt gratitude to grad student Katie McMorris for her transformative work on our "Evaluating Sources" section of the site. The new resources here cover how to judge digital sources of information, how to avoid unreliable or propagandistic sources, and much, much more.

Jul. 23, 2019: We are very, very proud to announce the launch of our brand-new citation resources for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) style! Learn to structure papers, cite sources, format tables, and more according to IEEE guidelines. Our sincerest thanks to grad student Mac Boyle for these wonderful new pages.

Jul. 8, 2019: Online researchers rejoice: this new guide from Maddie Gehling offers a helpful "FYI" on URLs and DOIs!

Jun. 17, 2019: School may be out for summer, but OWL developers are still hard at work! Enjoy our now-completed World Englishes subsection (care of grad student Shyam Panday). These pages provide theoretical foundations, real-world examples, and practical classroom applications of World Englishes concepts, making them a great read for teachers.

Apr. 25, 2019: Enjoy today's new OWL Conversation, in which Dr. Margie Berns gives a primer on the field of World Englishes, as well as this written introduction to the field. Thanks to grad student Shyam Pandey for both of these new resources. You can also access the video on our YouTube channel.

Apr. 16, 2019: We have another double feature to share! Enjoy two new pieces from grad student Kylie Regan: this sample film scene analysis (a brand new piece for the site) and this revamped list of exercises to beat writer's block.

Apr. 2, 2019: It's a double feature—we have two new vidcasts to share! In the first, Bianca explains the misunderstandings that can result from dangling modifiers as well as how to avoid them. In the second, Mason offers more writing motivation help in a companion piece to his Feb. 19 video.

Mar. 28, 2019: Creative writers: breathe life into your stories with our new resource on writing compelling characters. This article—graduate student Carey Compton's first contribution to the site—is full of helpful examples to guide you.

Mar. 22, 2019: Learn to write stronger arguments using the influential ideas of British philosopher Stephen Toulmin in our new article on the Toulmin model for argumentation. Credit to Erin McNulty for this wonderful piece.

Mar. 7, 2019: The OWL is proud to announce the launch of a new semiregular feature: OWL Conversations. These are editorial pieces that aim to stimulate conversation about the ways we teach, discuss, and perform the work of writing. In our inaugural conversation, Erin McNulty debunks the myths that often seem to define popular ideas about what it means to be a "good writer." 

Feb. 28, 2019: Stuck on a difficult writing project? Not sure how to proceed? Consult our revamped Writer's Block help resource (written by Kylie Regan last fall) for ideas that can help you get the creative juices flowing.

Feb. 19, 2019: Check out the third of eight new OWL vidcasts scheduled for this semester, which is written by (and stars) the OWL's Mason Pellegrini! This video (part of a two-video series) describes how to prepare for a writing assignment in ways that make staying motivated a breeze. 

Feb. 1, 2019: Enjoy the second of eight new OWL vidcasts scheduled for this semester! In this video, Alejandra sheds light on the differences between active and passive voice in hopes of explaining why teachers seem to hate the latter one so much—except for when they don't.

Jan. 22, 2019: Introducing the first of eight new OWL vidcasts set to debut in Spring 2019! In this video, Libby addresses one of the more frustrating mysteries related to common writing assignments: why isn't there a single unified system for citations?

Jan. 15, 2019: The OWL is very proud to announce the soft launch of our new engineering documentation series of articles (penned by Purdue's own Ashish Patel). The first two articles in this series discuss the conceptual and preliminary design stages of an engineering project, during which engineers document the project's purpose and specifications. This series will conclude in Spring 2019.

2018

Dec. 10, 2018: Visit our new Chicago Overview and Workshop page, which provides a quick crash course on the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) and directs visitors to medium-specific citation resources. Thanks to graduate student Maggie Myers for this much-needed update, which brings the navigation architecture of our Chicago resources in line with our MLA and APA resources.

Nov. 26, 2018: Learn to argue like the greatest ancient orators in our new piece on classical argumentation by Kaden Milliren from the Purdue English Department. This resource uses Aristotle's instructions to orators in his On Rhetoric to build a robust structure for persuasive argument.

Nov. 7, 2018: Check out our brand-new article on film writing by Kylie Regan from the Purdue English Department. In this resource, you'll learn how to write about the visual choices that directors make to craft cinematic masterpieces.