Issue For October 28, 2009
Special Announcement
MLA and APA Update Reminder
OWL staff would like to remind our users that all OWL resources (web pages, PDF samples, and PowerPoint presentations) are updated and correct, reflecting the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.), as well as the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.). You may find those resources at the links below:
MLA: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
APA: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
The OWL is also happy to announce the addition of two resources suggested by an OWL user: the MLA and APA Classroom Posters.
MLA Clasroom Poster: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/17/
APA Clasrrom Poster: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/23/
These posters are large jpg files users can download and print at various sizes for use in classrooms, on tutoring tables, or as handouts. Please be aware, however, that as print quality jpgs, they may take some time to download. You may adjust print size in your Internet browser or in Photoshop (or a similar application).
The posters were developed by Kate Bouwens, the spring 2009 Purdue Professional Writing - Purdue OWL Intern as a capstone project for the course.
Purdue OWL Grammar and Mechanics Exercises
The OWL staff is very happy to announce the posting of the redesigned and corrected Purdue OWL Grammar and Mechanics Exercises. For the past year and a half, we have been working on updating the OWL page design and OWL navigation based on our OWL Usability Project findings (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/research/). As part of this process, we have also been working on correcting and updating our exercises. The exercises are now available here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/
To navigate the OWL exercises, you may use the navigation bar on the left side of the pages. The navigation bar is organized into a three-tiered system so users may continue to select links until they arrive at the level or resources needed. The exercises begin with rule overviews and are then followed by the exercises themselves in the navigation bar. Answers are also available to check work.
In addition, users may print the exercises and the exercise answers by using the Full Resource for Printing button at the bottom of the exercise pages.
If you cannot find an exercise you have used in the past, or if you have a suggestion for adding an exercise, please let us know. As always, please contact the Purdue OWL Coordinator (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/contact/owlcoordinator) if you have any questions. We value your feedback.
Note: Users may notice that the OWL exercises no longer offer the dropdown option. The reason we had to eliminate this is because the OWL staff is dedicated to the W3C and Section 508 compliance guidelines, which were a major consideration for the original OWL redesign in 2006. Unfortunately, the dropdown options in the original OWL exercises did not comply with W3C and section 508 standards because the dropdowns cannot be used with some adaptive technologies. The new exercises can be used with adaptive technologies.
To read more about W3C and Section 508 standards, please go to these links:
W3C: http://www.w3.org/
Section 508: http://www.section508.gov/
Feature Story
Computers and Writing 2010 to be Hosted at Purdue
The OWL is happy to announced that the 2010 Computers and Writing (C&W) conference will be hosted at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, from May 20 - 23, 2010. The online C&W conference will run from April 15 - May 13, 2010. The theme for C&W this time around is "Virtual Worlds." Here is an overview from the C&W website:
As mobile communication takes hold, Web 2.0 matures, and serious gaming and virtual worlds offer us more enticing opportunities for communication, instructors in Computers and Writing are being challenged to integrate these technologies into writing classrooms in ever newer ways. So, too, are scholars of writing technologies challenged and inspired by online participatory cultures to forge new meanings for composing in these virtual worlds. Such integrations and their challenges have pushed the boundaries of composition.
And here is a link to the conference website, which provides submission guidelines and the call for proposals:
http://www.digitalparlor.org/cw2010/
The extended deadline for proposals is October 31, 2009.
Old OWL Retired
OWL staff would like to remind our users that the old OWL has been retired and that users may access the new OWL here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
If you are having problems finding resources, please reference our new Site Map:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/sitemap/
or our new Search Page
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/search.php
And as always, you may contact the Purdue OWL Coordinator here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/contact/owlcoordinator
News from the Purdue Writing Lab
News from our in-person Writing Lab, located on Purdue University's campus in Heav. 226.
Purdue Writing Lab - A Space for Writing Workshops - And Haiku Events
The Purdue Writing Lab hosted a haiku writing event to celebrate the National Day on Writing (http://www.ncte.org/dayonwriting) on Tuesday, October 20. Haiku are three-line poems that contain five, seven, and five syllables per line, respectively.
Purdue students, staff, and members of the community dropped by the Writing Lab in Heavilon Hall on Purdue's West Lafayette, Indiana, campus to write haiku. Visitors wrote their haiku using pens and post-it notes and posted the poems in the hallway outside of the Lab. The poems filled the hallway with creative work to raise awareness of both the National Day on Writing and the Writing Lab. Haiku poets also refreshed themselves with cookies inside the Lab.
Purdue Writing Lab
a space for writing workshops
and Haiku events
The Writing Lab is also working with the Lafayette Adult Resources Academy (LARA) to develop a creative journal to help celebrate the National Day on Writing and National Literacy Month, which was September. To read about this engagement project, please go here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/
The Writing Lab will also sponsor an InDesign workshop Thursday, October 29 at 6 PM in Stanley Coulter Hall in room G046. InDesign guru, Ehren Pflugfelder, a graduate student in rhetoric and composition, will lead the workshop.
News from the Purdue OWL
New and Updated Purdue OWL Resources
The OWL staff is happy to announce the completion of the following resources:
MLA Classroom Poster: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/17/
APA Classroom Poster: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Exercises: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/
Site Map: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/sitemap/
Search Page: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/search.php
FAQs: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/757/01/
The Rhetorical Situation: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/01/
Poetry: Close Reading: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/751/01/
Final OWL Redesign
The OWL staff is happy to announce that we are close to completing the redesign of the OWL. In the next couple months, the "orange" OWL launched in 2006 will be completed and shift from this design:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
to a page design and three-tiered navigation bar organization like this:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/
If you would like to read more about the redesign process, please visit these page:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/612/01/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/writinglab/redesign
With this final redesign, all of the major updates and changes to the OWL will be complete. We will continue to tweak the OWL, but for the most part, the recommendations from the two-year usability study (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/research/) will have been implemented. As always, we are eager to hear from OWL users on these changes. Please feel free to contact us:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/contact/
