Issue For June 2, 2004

During the summer session at Purdue (May to August), we'll be sending out the OWL News every two weeks.

Writing Question of the Week

Can you tell me the format for referencing something a college instructor says during a class? Thank you.

Answer MLA style (section 5.8.11) says, "In a citation of an oral presentation, give the speaker's name; the title of the presentation (if known), in quotation marks; the meeting and sponsoring organization (if applicable); the location; and the date. If there is no title, use an appropriate descriptive label (Address, Lecture, Keynote speech, Reading/), neither underlined nor enclosed in quotation marks.

So it would be something like:

Smith, Bob. Lecture. Maryville University, New York. 17 May 2003.

APA style does not give a specific example for lectures, but I would cite it as an unpublished paper:

Smith, Bob. (2003, May). Title of lecture (if any). Lecture presented at Maryville University, New York, NY.

The OWL Help Nest

Each week we'll publish a request for advice or information. If you wish to contribute a response to the topic, please write to us at owln-@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 response. The following week, we'll publish the best information and advice that we receive in the newsletter. If you have a question for our readers, please send it to us at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu.

This Week's Question I desperately need some activities and resources about sentence combining, sentence clarity and avoiding wordiness with answers. I have already used the activity on the OWL Web site. Does anyone have any suggestions for other resources?

Answer: Allyn and Bacon published the two best resources for sentence combining back in 1985 called Sentence Combining: Practice Plus, Book 1 and Book 2 by Bruce MacDonald and Leslie Orsini. Unfortunately, both are out of print. McGraw Hill publishes a distant second place text called Sentence Combining: A Composing Book by William Strong. With fewer explanations, the Strong text is more confusing and less effective, but nonetheless a source for this key writing development device. One other text (which I have not used in class) is Sentence-Combining Workbook by Pam Altman et al., and published by Thomson Heinle.--Paul Morse

What's Happening on OWL

OWL Eye on...What Are Your OWL Dreams? This summer marks the beginning of work to transform Purdue's OWL from a massive collection of HTML pages into a streamlined database that will deliver content dynamically to the Web. As we make plans for this transition, we'd like to hear from you as to what you'd like to see on Purdue OWL in the future. Please email Karl Stolley, OWL Coordinator/soon-to-be OWL Webmaster at ka-@owl.english.purdue.edu with your wildest dreams and suggestions.

What's Happening in the Writing Lab

OWL Eye on...Maymester Schedule The Writing Lab will continue to offer services for students and teachers in Maymester courses. One-on-one tutorials, in-lab and in-class workshops, lab tours, conversation groups, and Writing Lab resources will all be available from May 17 through June 11.
- Maymester 2004 Writing Lab Hours:
- Tutoring Hours: M-Th 9-4; F 9-1
- ESL Conversation Groups: M & Tu 3-4; W & Th 11-12.
OWL Eye on....Maymester In-Lab Workshops
- Thurs. June 3: APA Style
- Tues. June 8: MLA Style
- Thurs June 10: Proofreading in ESL

Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading our newsletter. You can email us at any time at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator, Karl Stolley, at coordi-@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster, Erin Karper, at webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Erin and Karl take turns writing the newsletter.)

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