The Purdue Online Writing Lab is a free resource for academic writing, offering students easy access to a wide range of writing examples, guided feedback, and friendly assistance from learning assistants. You will quickly find out that the Purdue Online Writing Lab is much more than a simple blog – it’s an entire virtual writing laboratory.
Here, you will find a variety of academic resources designed to assist you in your writing endeavors, including but not limited to the following:
Writing Guides, Strategies, And Analysis Tools
One of the best things about the Purdue Online Writing Lab is its collection of educational guides and strategies designed to boost your writing productivity. Whether you’re a brand-new writer or you’ve been writing for a while but feel like you could use some help, these resources will be a great starting point.
You will find a variety of writing guides and strategies, all of which are accessible from the home page. Among these are the following:
- An Outline Generator
- The Pyramid Scheme
- How to Write an Introduction
- How to Write an Analysis Paper
- How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation
- The ABCs of Research
- The Elements of Style
- The Elements of Fiction
- The Elements of Dialogue
- The Elements of a Profile
In addition to these tutorials and guides, the Purdue Online Writing Lab also provides you with a broad collection of academic tools that are designed to help you analyze and improve your writing. The following tools are available from the home page:
- The Abstract Builder
- The Counterfactual Reasoning Generator
- The Error Corrector
- The Mythical Man-Month Demonstrator
- The Sentence Equivalence Generator
- The Style Analysis Tool
- The Tonic Device
- The Vitruvian Generator
Free Blogging Platform
Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of the Purdue Online Writing Lab is its use of a free blogging platform. Students can now easily create and post blogs that are linked to specific assignments, creating a kind of virtual academic notebook that serves as a research tool. This feature alone would make the site worth visiting, but the ability to access a wide range of academic support makes this resource truly invaluable. As you would expect, the blogging platform is completely free and open source, hosted on GitHub and built with the popular blogging platform, WordPress.
Writing Center
The Purdue Online Writing Lab provides students with a place to come for feedback and reassurance as they navigate the often daunting task of writing for academic purposes. For those who need additional help, they can sign up for one-on-one mentoring with a writing tutor, available via live chat.
The mentoring program is a fantastic way to improve your academic writing – not only will you get feedback on your work, but you’ll also get the opportunity to practice with a professional writer, should you desire. However, if you’re looking for a place to simply write and get feedback, you’ve come to the right place – the Purdue Online Writing Lab is a one-stop-shop for all your academic writing needs.
Discussion Boards
It’s important to note that the Purdue Online Writing Lab is not a place for students to just get their work out and leave – it’s a community of academic writers, open for anyone to join and participate in. This is made possible by the use of an open-source software program called Discourse, which enables forums and discussion boards. This software was originally designed for use in online learning – much like the writing tutors and help desk available through the site – but its limitless possibilities make it ideal for use within an academic environment, as well.
Live Writer
Perhaps the greatest thing about all of this is that it is completely free. There are no charges to participate in the resource, no registration fees, nothing. While the site does maintain a small contribution from Ad Astra in order to keep the servers running, the entirety of the operation is funded by the generosity of the university and its learning community. This is quite a feat, for an online writing laboratory to be completely free – and that’s what makes it so unique.
In today’s world, where college costs are on the rise and students are struggling to find the money to pay for their degrees, the existence of such a useful and innovative resource is truly inspiring. If you’re looking to enhance your academic writing productivity and want an opportunity to connect with other students, faculty, and tutors, simply visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab today – you will not be disappointed.