Academy Caritas

So anyway, I meant to post about those Online Writing Labs (OWLs) that many colleges have put online.

Their contents and quality vary widely from one college to the next. They’re intended to help students write their papers at whatever time they get around to doing them, wherever they happen to be. Good ones include online access to reference tools such as dictionaries, thesauruses, and grammar usage guides, a link to the school’s library, any formatting standards established by his school in particular, and sometimes more specific material depending on the type of student expected to be using the OWL.

Unfortunately, some schools have slapped a list of links up on a set and called it an OWL. I won’t be recommending any of those pitiful little things.

Yes, it’s perfectly fine for others to use these sites. They aren’t behind the school’s firewalls, so they are a resource that has been generously shared with the public. If you find one especially helpful, consider sending an email to the site’s authors/editors, thanking them for their efforts

• Roane State Community College
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Regina – serves to support face-to-face tutorials. However, the information that is there is very interesting, so I included it.
• University of Illiois Urbana-Champagne Writer’s Workshop at The Center for Writing Studies – again, it supplements in-person tutoring and workshops. There is a fair amount of material provided online as well, though.
• Purdue University offers online and offline help. The wording on their site causes me to wonder if they originated the use of the acronym “OWL.”
• The Writing Center at Cleveland State University

I was browsing through a magazine about writing today and came across an article about online writing labs (OWLs), suggesting that writers make use of them as reference tools.

I was distracted, though, by this: Ink, “A Free, Multiplayer, Online Game for Writing & Community.”

Imagine that you’re surfing the Web and you discover a site called Ink…You click Enter, and your browser loads a chat window and the image of a cityscape. A caption informs you that you are in the City Center. Almost immediately, someone notices that you’ve arrived and begins talking with you in the chat window. “Welcome to Ink,” the stranger says. “This is a great place. But we have a problem right now, and I’m hoping you can help. Our neighborhood isn’t doing well. We need to get a group of people together to address this problem. Can you help us? We need to design a flier that will motivate people to come to a meeting where we can talk about this problem. We need to draft a resolution that we can circulate to those who show up. We also need a brochure that explains why other citizens should vote for our proposal. And we’re going to need a white paper to explain to City Council the principles that inform our proposal. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Can you help us?”

And I don’t even know for sure if there’ll be a separation!

Katie may go to high school this year. We’ll know for sure very soon. I’ve done a transcript for her, all official and everything.

Just the thought makes me jealous of the time I have with her now, though. I’ve enjoyed these years together, and I don’t want them to end. I don’t want to clip her wings, of course, and I know my qualms are selfish.

It isn’t as if I’ll have trouble finding things to do. It’s that Katie won’t be with me to do them.

Cyn

How many of these references do you recognize?

I had a little trouble on the site when using Firefox, so you may need to try a different browser if you can’t see the incredible map mural at first.

(Link updated 24-December-2007.)

Go watch Hans Rosling talk. You’ll need your sound on. If you ever need to give a presentation of any kind, it’s “how to do it” training. You’ll enjoy it, and this is good stuff to know.