This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/). When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice at bottom.
Help Using OWL Resources
Summary: This page will help you learn about the features of the new OWL at Purdue site, including printing, requesting copies, linking, and reporting errors/problems.
Making the OWL Work for You
There are many features of the new Purdue OWL. Learn all about using them here; you can find answers to common questions about the OWL at our FAQ (which is in progress; there'll be a link to it soon!). Click here to return to the page you were viewing.
The Toolbar
Most of the functionality of new OWL pages can be controlled through the toolbar.
Image Caption: Each of these icons has a specific function, which you can learn about below.
The toolbar appears on all OWL resources, and allows you to:
- display all sections of a handout for easy printing
- request making copies for a class, workshop, etc.
- tell the OWL staff about your link to our pages
- report a typographical or other content error
- offer general feedback and comments to the OWL staff
Printing OWL Resources
All pages on the new OWL are printable (and actually look nothing like the pages you see on screen—but work well as printed documents).
Image Caption: Clicking this icon will assemble all sections of a handout for one-click printing.
However, because our longer handouts are broken up over multiple pages for easy viewing and linking (and more precise search results), we offer a way to view all of a resource's sections at once for one-click printing. When you print off a copy, you must include the full legal notice that appears at the resource's end.
For users of the old OWL who were used to being able to download PDFs: we're not currently offering PDFs of our material. Users may, of course, make their own PDFs for personal use—though we do not allow reposting of our content in any electronic form.
Requesting to Copy OWL Resources
The Purdue OWL is meant to help teachers. While we strongly encourage you to link to OWL rather than print off material, we understand that there are situations where printed copies are required.
Image Caption: Clicking this icon will open an email form to request making multiple copies of a handout.
In most cases (unless you're requesting more than 200 copies or are charging participants for a workshop or some similar event), you may photocopy OWL materials for free. However, we ask that you please contact us for one-time permission to do so.
When you photocopy OWL resources, you must include the full legal notice that appears at the resource's end. Remember that we do NOT allow any reposting of our content, in original or modified forms, in any electronic format. See our Fair Use Policy for additional details.
Linking to OWL Resources
Linking to OWL and OWL resources is absolutely free and encouraged!
Image Caption: Clicking this icon will open an email form to tell OWL when you link to a page.
However, we do like hearing from users about the pages they're linking to—keeping numbers on this type of activity helps us to demonstrate the worth of OWL to the world community. Our contact form also allows you to include the URL of your page you're linking to us from—just because we enjoy seeing the kinds of sites instructors, students, and others are building that link to OWL.
Reporting Errors in OWL Resources
The Purdue OWL staff are constantly editing and revising our content. But despite our efforts, typos and other errors still creep through.
Image Caption: Clicking this icon will open a form to report an error (e.g., a typo).
That's where you come in! We rely on the scrutiny of our users to find problems with our pages. So if you see something that is an error, or even that you think is an error, please let us know—we won't be insulted, and you'll get quite a thank-you. Our new content management system is designed to help us fix errors quickly; depending on the time of day, OWL staff may be able to fix the error and write back to you within minutes of receiving your report.
Offering Feedback on OWL and OWL Resources
We know that sometimes, users just like to contact the OWL staff. And we like hearing from you!
Image Caption: Clicking this icon will open an email form to send general feedback to OWL.
Our general feedback form is meant to encourage a dialogue between OWL staff and users like yourself. We'll listen to anything you have to say—from handouts you'd like to see on OWL, to new features you'd like to see on the site, to your glowing praise (and harsh criticism!) of our work here. Our Webmaster, Karl Stolley, also likes talking shop with other Webmasters and techies out there.
We also ask our feedback users if it's OK for us to share their comments with other OWL users, since we'd like to have a page on our site with nothing but comments from users—so let us know when you contact us.
Still have questions? Contact the OWL staff, or return to the page you were looking at.