OWL at Purdue University: OWL Newsletter for September 7, 2001

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Purdue OWL News
September 7, 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.

What's the difference between conscious and conscience?

Here's the answer.

These two words are often mistaken for each other, particularly since they are often pronounced in ways that sound alike.

Conscious is an adjective meaning awake and aware. For example: The patient remained conscious despite her head injury.

(If you need to use a noun to indicate that someone is conscious, the noun form is consciousness. For example: Bob lost consciousness when he fell off his bike and hit his head.)

Conscience is a noun meaning the sense of obligation to be good. For example: Chris wouldn't cheat because his conscience bothered him.

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.

"How do I know when a source is a good one? I've found a lot of information on the Internet, but I don't know if I can use it in my research paper."

Eileen Lane writes to us with the following advice: To evaluate whether Internet information is valid and/or accurate, I suggest that the student look for the source of the information. That is, is the website managed by a university, medical association/source that is reputable, or a well established organization? Is the website frequently updated? Who is the webmaster? Can the information be backed up through another source?

An excellent website, one that I recommend to my students, is the Michigan Electronic Library (mel) http://www.mel.lib.mi.us. This site originated at the University of Michigan. It is maintained by librarians, and each subject heading has a librarian or two responsible for viewing websites and evaluating them. This is where I would begin if I was in doubt.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with your suggestions!

Here's our next request from some of our readers.

I just started a new job and I'm finding that I have to send a lot of email at my workplace. Any tips for making sure that my electronic correspondence is professional?

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... Internet Resources

We have an entire section of our site devoted to collecting and presenting resources available over the Internet to help you with writing and research in a variety of contexts. You can even send us your favorite writing and research links for us to add to our site.

Here's just a small sampling of what we have to offer in our Internet resources section.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/teachers.html

Resources for teachers who use writing in their classrooms and teachers of writing, including lesson plans and classroom materials, distance education, online journals, mailing lists and online discussion groups, and others.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/sourceofinfo.html

This section has links to libraries, books, dictionaries, and style guides.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/genre.html

Here you'll find web resources about writing in different fields such as professional writing, web publishing, creative writing, and composition at different grade levels.

We also have directories of other online writing labs, a tutorial on searching the Internet, and much, much more. If you're looking for a good place to start Internet research, look no further than our Internet resources section.

What's Happening In the Writing Lab

OWL Eye on ... In Lab Workshops

We're pleased to announce that we will be continuing our In-Lab Workshops Series this fall. The In-Lab Workshop Series is designed to provide Purdue students with an opportunity to learn about a variety of writing-related topics, including information about basic writing skills, research papers, business writing documents, and the use of OWL (Online Writing Lab). Each interactive presentation, facilitated by experienced Writing Lab Instructors, is designed to equip students with the skills they need to succeed at writing tasks.

You can view the schedule for our In-Lab Workshops at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/lab/labwrkshps.html

Ongoing in the Writing Lab

In the next week, we will be offering the following In-Lab Workshops:

Writing for an American Academic Audience
Tuesday, September 11, 4:00 p.m.

Research and the Internet
Thursday, September 13, 4:00 p.m.

In-Lab workshops are located in the Writing Lab, which is in Heavilon Hall in room 226. Stop by and see us.

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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