Evaluation of a Web Resource: Purdue Online Writing Lab

The Purdue OWL. Purdue University Writing Lab, 2010.

. 24 September 2010.

This is Purdue University's Online Writing Lab. It has a whole wealth of resources, articles, and guides to help people in all sorts of writing tasks. After reviewing the website, I have come to the conclusion that it is not only a fair and acceptable web resource, but that it is an excellent source to use if you have any kind of serious writing to do.

The website meets all the criteria for a reputable source. It was updated a couple of minutes before i visited the site. All of the content is current; every guide that I looked at was updated within a couple of weeks of my visit.

The website does not contain any links to relevant outside sources; it lists most of the information on its site. Its only link that I could find is to the Purdue University website, which is updated extremely often. The last time when I checked was several minutes beforehand.

As one would expect, there are no potential biases or hidden agendas when looking up the site's creator, Purdue University. There is no inflammatory language; the website is very professional.

The website does not have one single author, but every guide or article has the author’s names clearly visible, along with the last time the guide was updated.There is also an easy and convenient contact tab at the top of the page, as well as on the bottom of the page.

The guides don’t have an actual bibliography, but each one of them has a summary at the top. If any outside information is used in the guide, it is explicitly stated and cited in the summary.

Basically, Purdue University's Online Writing Lab is a very reputable, authoritative, and trustworthy source. It goes beyond that, though. The OWL is a one stop shop for all your writing needs. It has an excellent guide for citing in MLA format:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

It has basically everything you can ask for with regards to MLA citing; there is a list of links on the left, each bringing up a long, in-depth webpage about a specific citation topic. It also has a similar guide for APA citations, but there is another excellent resource on the OWL site:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/6/

This website has everything you need in order to apply for pretty much any job. It is not just a basic guide; it has a whole range of topics related to job hunting: resumes, cover letters, interviewing, etc, all of which are very in-depth. It even has tips for international students for finding jobs, as well as tips on how to tailor your job application for a specific audience.

This is a very helpful resource, one that I know I will use whenever I am writing anything important.

One last resource from the online writing lab that I would recommend is Purdue's collection of writing exercises:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/.

It is a good way to practice and brush up on grammar skills, which are very important in professional writing. The exercises challenge you to spot grammar mistakes and correct them on your own, then gives you a link to the answers once you are done. They are more fun than reading a textbook of grammar rules, and doing them even a few times should solve anyone's grammar problems.