Virtual Tour of the Online Writing Lab

 

Greetings. Today, we'd like to take you on a cybervisit to the Community College of Denver's Online Writing Lab or OWL. As you take this tour, you may need to use the back button on your browser occasionally to get back to the tour itself.

The OWL has been in business since the fall of 1997 when we tutored a total of ten papers for the whole semester. Last spring, we responded to over 1100 papers-- and those numbers don't include the hundreds of people who access our resource pages and links.

For our first stop, go to our Main Page (http://owl.ccd.edu.) Look at the six links arrayed around the picture in the middle of the page.

Choose Writing Resources. Scrolling down this page, you'll notice that it contains many resources for writers, including internet grammar pages, online ESL help and assistance with research writing.

Choose the first link on the list, CCD Writing Handouts. On this page you'll note many grammar-related topics like apostrophes and run-on sentences, as well as handouts on citing sources in both MLA and APA. These handouts have been created in-house by our tutors and are based on their experiences with common trouble spots for our students. They're designed to print out for handy hard-copy reference.

Return to the Main Page. Click on the second link, Paper Bank, and on this page you can read about the Paper Bank.

Now click on Research Essay under the Table of Contents on the right-hand side. You'll note that this essay demonstrates a unique structure and the tutor comments contained within the text are there to help explain the strengths and weaknesses of this essay in particular and the form of the research paper in general.

You can click on the Assignment Description to see a generic research essay assignment and to link to the Argument Essay example which contains more helpful information for research writing.

Return to the Main Page. Now click on Online Tutoring. If you click on Meet the Tutors, you can read short bios by the tutors and you may request a specific tutor when you submit your paper. All of our tutors tutor in the Writing Center at CCD and/or teach here.

Return to the Online Tutoring page and click on the third link in the left-hand column, Send a Paper. This page will accept your paper -- up to eight pages -- and send it to us to comment on and then return to you. We usually work within a twenty-four hour period, though occasionally we take up to forty-eight hours to reply.

As you scroll down this page, you'll notice that it asks many questions of you. Answering these questions helps the tutor help you. In face-to-face tutoring, the tutor can ask questions to clarify the assignment or to address your specific concerns; with online tutoring, this questioning takes place in the form of these boxes, so be sure to try to provide the tutor with as much information as you possibly can.

At the bottom of the page, you will see directions about how to copy and paste from your wordprocessor into the webpage. This process is the most complex part of submitting a paper to the OWL, and if you can do it, then you are ready.

If you have further questions about the OWL, please click on the Contact us link on the Main Page and then choose Ask a question about the OWL services to send us an email.

Thanks for taking this tour and good luck with all of your writing.