OWL at Purdue University: OWL News for August 24, 2001

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Purdue OWL News
August 24, 2001

Welcome to the Purdue OWL News!

This is an online newsletter about happenings in the Purdue University Writing Lab and the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). We're always glad to hear from you at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu!

Writing Question of the Week

Here's our writing question of the week, brought to you by the Online Writing Lab Tutors here at Purdue.

I'm writing my thesis and I found some information from websites. Could you please help me as to how to cite them in the reference section?

Here's the answer.

Citing electronic sources such as websites, just like citing any other source, depends on choosing and following the appropriate guidelines for the discipline in which you are writing.

Each discipline has specific guidelines for how to cite sources and format papers. These guidelines are explained in a style manual or style guide. Examples of style manuals include the, MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, and the Chicago Manual of Style.

How do you choose the appropriate style manual for formatting your thesis or paper? One of the best things to do is to ask your adviser or instructor for guidelines; they should be able to tell you which style you should be using for citation and formatting. Our OWL also has a partial list of style manuals and websites that explain these styles for various disciplines at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_docsources.html. We also have a handout just on citing electronic sources at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_docelectric.html. You can choose the appropriate style from the list and find links to some websites that explain how to cite electronic sources in that style.

Here are some brief guidelines for citing information from websites in two of the more popular citation styles. When creating a citation, it's important to give as much information about the source as you can, so that people can retrieve your information later. Since information on the web can be removed or the address changed, it's important to indicate when you retrieved the information in case it turns up missing later.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style

Author(s). Name of Page. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site. Date of Access.

For example:
Felluga, Dino. Undergraduate Guide to Literary Theory. 17 Dec. 1999. Purdue University. 15 November 2000. <http://omni.cc.purdue.edu%7Efelluga/theory2.html>.

For more information about MLA style, see their page at visit our OWL handout on MLA style at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html

American Psychological Association (APA) style

Author, A. A. (2000). Title of work. Retrieved month day, year, from source.

For example:

Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F., & Nix, D. H. (1993). Technology and education: New wine in new bottles: Choosing pasts and imagining educational futures. Retrieved August 24, 2000, from Columbia University, Institute for Learning Technologies Web site: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/papers/newwine1.html.

For more information about this, see the new official APA style website's guide to citing electronic media (from which these examples were taken) at http://www.apastyle.org/elecgeneral.html. We're currently revising our OWL's APA handout to match the new guidelines in the 5th edition of their style manual, and we'll let you know when we're done with that update.

The OWL Help Nest

Many of our readers write to us with questions or requests for help with their writing. Readers also write to us with suggestions about how to help people learn more about writing. In this section of the newsletter, we'll try to bring together both the people looking for help and the people who can help them.

Each week we'll publish a request for advice or information. If you have information or advice about this topic, please write to us at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu. Please let us know if you want us to include your name and/or your email address when we publish your information or advice. The following week, we'll publish the best information and advice that we receive in the newsletter.

Here's our request for this week.

It's back to school time for many students in the United States. What are some of your favorite tips for starting to write school assignments?

Got some help for our readers? Send it to owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu. Your advice and information about this will appear in next week's newsletter. Got a question for our readers? Send it to us at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu and we'll try to include it in the newsletter as soon as possible.

What's Happening On OWL

OWL Eye On... Starting the Writing Process

If you're starting back to school like many Purdue University students are, or if you've just been handed a new writing task to complete anywhere, you may find yourself wondering how to get started.

We have a number of handouts on our OWL that help you with getting a jump-start on your writing process and developing your ideas into their final form. Here are some links to handouts that will help you explore ideas and start planning your writing.

Planning (Invention) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_plan1.html

Planning (Invention): When you start to write http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_plan2.html

Planning (Invention): Thought Starters (Asking the Right Questions) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_plan3.html

Coping with writing anxiety http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_anxiety.html

Overcoming writer's block http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_block.html

New and Under Construction on OWL

We have a new handout on Writing for a North American Business Audience available at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/pw/p_ameraudience.html. This handout was written by Angela Laflen and Stephanie Williams Hughes. Thanks to both of them!

We also have a new handout on annotated bibliographies available at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_annotatedbib.html

You can see what new content has been added in past weeks by visiting our what's new page at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/whatsnew.html.

What's Happening In the Writing Lab

OWL Eye on ... Welcoming our New Tutors and Assistant Director!

With the start of a new semester at Purdue University, we're very pleased to welcome new tutors to our staff. All of our tutors are graduate students in the department of English who have taught freshman composition and a variety of other courses. They bring specializations in English as a Second Language (ESL), business and technical writing, writing in the disciplines, and literature to our Writing Lab.

We would also like to welcome our new Assistant Director, Dr. Linda Bergmann, who joins the Purdue Writing Lab community from the University of Missouri at Rolla. We're very excited to have Dr. Bergmann as a new addition to our permanent Writing Lab staff and as a new faculty member in the Department of English!

Stop by and meet our new tutors and say hello to our returning staff! We're all eager to help you make the most out of writing in this coming year.

Ongoing in the Writing Lab

During the first two weeks of classes, teachers can bring their classes in for a tour of the Writing Lab. The tour includes an introduction to the Lab, detailed information about all of its services, and bookmarks and brochures. Interested teachers can contact Hsiao-Ming Tong at 494-3723 to schedule a tour.

This fall, as always, we will have tutorials, workshops for classes, reference materials and handouts, computers and printers for student use, ESL self-study materials, bookmarks, quiet places to study, and a helpful and friendly staff. Stop by and see us and get a free Writing Lab pencil!

Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading our newsletter, and please email us any suggestions you might have! We really enjoy hearing from our readers. You can mail us at any time at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator, Geoff Stacks, at coordinator@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster, Erin Karper, at webmaster@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Erin and Geoff take turns writing the newsletter.)

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