A Nearly Septuagenarian’s Adventures with Purdue Owl
A Nearly Septuagenarian’s Adventures with Purdue Owl
January 9, 2023
As a student, the Purdue
Owl website was a source of great comfort for me. It seemed almost a tangible,
billowy, yet safe and confining space; kind of like those bounce-houses filled
with balls for kids. I would flit among MLA and APA and general writing tips:
pulling up a sample reference page here, making sure I knew the difference
between effect and affect there, and ended up by checking an in-text citation
for a quote within a quote.
I haven’t perused Purdue
Owl’s website in some time, so, it is disconcerting to find it is completely
tied into Purdue University’s writing lab. Now, you can also more readily
access various sections of the style guide directly from the browser. If, for
example, you want to check to cite a poster in APA format, Purdue Owl’s
information is listed among the many sites you can choose in your browser. I
can see how advantageous this fine-tuning is, and, in fact, I have already made
use of this feature over the years. Yet, I am nostalgic. I remember clicking
into Purdue Owl and finding a wonderful and useful anthology of styles. I
clicked into it and from there, I could go to MLA, APA, Chicago and Basic
Writing tips with ease, and all with a sense of contained and defined space!
Now, each section of the “anthology” is disconnected and floating alone in
cyberspace. (I realize to a computer programmer, it always was, but I do so
much floating through life that I appreciate any notion of the concrete.)
Now when I go to Purdue
Owl’s website, I find myself in a much larger and confusing space. Instead of a
cozy little den surrounded by familiar and worn volumes, I am in a vast storage
house of knowledge, and I have to search for information through many portals
while avoiding countless rabbit holes. The current site does indeed have many
tabs that sparkle and shimmer, and I bet they would taste like chocolate if
they could.
As I wandered the site,
the vidcasts caught my fancy. I was going to watch all the ones I saw listed,
but after the first one, which seemed to cover basic information well, I
realized that, even with closed captions, the presentation moved at a pace too
fast for me to comprehend if I had needed it. I did not investigate whether
there were settings to slow or speed up the vidcast. But, if I had been new to
the material, I would not have found the vidcasts helpful at the initial
speed.
Next, I spotted the
citation generator. They have been around for quite some time, but seeing one
in association with Purdue Owl, gave it a legitimacy. I tried it out. The
instructions made sense to me, but I am not an impatient 18-year-old in a
hurry. I wonder if an indicator—with possibly flashing lights and huge letters
saying, “Wait, I need more information!” would be helpful. But then again, I
may not be giving 18 year-old scholars enough credit.
January 11, 2023
Today in my exploration
of Purdue Owl’s Website, I found the “Purdue Owl Style Guide to be the first
site listed in my browser for a Purdue Owl search. Ahh! Even though it took me
to the Purdue Online Writing lab, it was like coming home! At a glance, I was
reassured that my familiar resources were there—that this was the place. And it
was all cozy and orderly inside like a good website should be! One bit of confusion is that there are
two home tabs: the “Purdue Owl home” and the “home” tab. The Purdue Owl
home page seemed to be there to bridge the gap for people who are looking
specifically for reference material as opposed to the Online Writing Lab.
This home page seems older and, well, clunkier. The information was boxed and
concise to a fault—almost clipped. In fact, it could have been a PDF version of
an old page. The site designers definitely weren’t expecting you to linger
here. It didn’t strike me as a place where I would get any real information. It
felt like a ghost…kind of like that dive on the outskirts of town you would
avoid except they used to have the best pizza in three states.
The other “home” page is
the page that opened when I clicked on the link in the browser: the Purdue
Online Writing Lab. The next tab after “home” is labeled “about” but, really,
it’s the donation page! Very clever Purdue.
The tabs following get
into information areas, including General Writing, Research and Citation,
Avoiding Plagiarism, Teacher/tutor Resources, Graduate Writing, Subject
Specific Writing, Job Search Writing, Multilingual, and Owl exercises. All of
these links are also provided in column form at the left side of the page. along
with suggested resources, including Style Guide Overview (The kitchen table of
the site; it is good to be home!), MLA Guide, APA Guide, and Chicago Guide. A
description of the writing lab and its mission statement, a message from the
director (about online services during the pandemic) takes up the rest of the
page.
In peeking inside the
Style Guide Overview, I found the links to the individual guides were
replicated there, making it a stand-alone reference (sort of like the
entertainment center in a den).
January 15, 2023
I wasn’t expecting to
find new and interesting material in Purdue Owl’s short introduction entitled,
Style Guide Overview, and I didn’t. However, the section curved,
smoothed and rounded my perspective on style. (I know; I just used three words
that are synonyms of each other. But maybe the redundancy illustrates some of
the incremental changes in my thought process.) Purdue Owl is well-aware that
students use the style guide primarily to check citations. That’s what I do. Teachers
at SLCC usually go over things like headings and whether they care if a paper
is written in third person, so what else do you need a style book for?
The Purdue Owl Online Writing lab explains that particular styles are
communication devices that make it easier to connect with readers. Academic
styles provide a uniform look within disciplines. The site further explains
that readers can tell immediately what type of questions and insights are
likely to be found in an MLA paper as opposed to an APA paper and how and where
to find these insights. Purdue Owl likens style guides to branding guides in
manufacturing and advertising, and underscores this simile with the implied
questions, “How do you know an Apple device, and what makes in an Apple?” The
headings, Works Cited pages, and citations may help to create the look, but the
style of a paper is also recognized by its tone, grammar, word choices and
general outlook. Students, of course, are infused with this knowledge as they
dive deeper into their studies, but a good stylebook can help. Purdue’s
overview lists several stylebooks that students may find helpful, along with
some specific or less common styles not found on their site.
In the past, I have
glanced at the section they now call “General Writing”, but I have a renewed
appreciation for the communicative aspects of academic writing styles and sense
I will make better use of the materials at hand. Hmmm, all this curving,
smoothing, and rounding because of a few short paragraphs…It’s time for me to pick
up a trashy novel!
January 18, 2023
I have a confession to
make: As a child, I only went to school when it rained.1 Now, I grew up in
Northern New York, and it rained more often there than it does here; still,
there are huge gaps in my basic education and knowledge. So, when I decided to
reflect on Purdue Owl’s grammar section, which used to be in the style guide,
but has since been moved to a more general location in the writing lab, I slid
down multiple rabbit holes soaking in information I missed as a child. Did you
know that -able endings go on complete words like, agreeable and comfortable,
while -ible endings go on incomplete words like horrible, audible? Of course
you did because you were a good child who went to school and paid attention.
I also revisited
the differences between “that” and “which”. This section had very
understandable explanations and examples, and included a link to a video, which
was also helpful. At this moment in time, I understand that the word “that” is
used with restrictive clauses—clauses that say this information goes only with
this noun: The cat, that had kittens yesterday, is hissing under the porch. The
word “which” is used with non-restrictive causes: The cat, which has lovely
green eyes, is hissing under the porch. In trying to come up with an example of
a non-restrictive clause, I realized that in many cases whether a clause is
restrictive depends on the writer’s perspective of the information provided by
the clause. If multiple cats in the neighborhood had kittens yesterday, then
this information would not be as crucial. And if one cat had the loveliest
green eyes of all cats, then this information would be crucial. So, the words
“which” and “that” really are codes for the reader trying to decipher meaning!
Wow! Now the big question is will I remember any of this tomorrow? Well, if I
don’t, Purdue Owl’s grammar section will be there.
1 I’ve quipped this line so often that it is now part of me. And I
missed an awful lot of school both on rainy days and sunny days. However, I
first heard the line on The Danny Thomas Show spoken by the character,
Buddy. Google directs me to season 4, episode 15.
January 20, 2023
Today, I was going to
look at the MLA guide in the Purdue Style book, but when I clicked on the
section, under the title was a citation generator. And under this, in teeny
tiny blue letters, was a link entitled “Using citation machines responsibly”. I
clicked on it. The document that came up read like a product disclaimer with
the message, “Citation generators can’t think.” They can’t tell if you have fed
it the wrong data. So be careful!
The page also explains
and illustrates with a diagram how generators handle data given to them. Under
the heading “How Can I Use Citation Generators Wisely?” appear basic pointers
almost all have the theme: Students are in charge of the data they input.
One example in
particular resonates with me. Some generators will automatically change
capitalization to fit the style, but capitalization is really the purview of
the authors/editors. The style book illustrates this with a citation of E.E.
Cummings’ poem, anyone lived in a pretty how town. The choice of
capitalization is integral to the work and should be preserved. It is up to the
student to know enough to overrule the generator. But being able to do this
requires the necessary hubris on the student’s part to say, “I know more than
this machine!” This is something that I have trouble with at times and reading
this was a good reminder to make use of tools but to trust my own
judgment.
There was also a similar
reminder to check editions of materials you use. On its own, the generator will
probably suggest the most recent edition which may not be the one you are
using. The section ends with tips on how to find reputable sources and includes
pointers such as: checking to see if the material was peer reviewed, and if the
authors’ credibility is sound.
All in all, this page
was a good review and worth my time. For someone starting out, this page could
contain valuable information, and boost their confidence in their authority as
a writer.
January 22, 2023
I am coloring outside
the lines a lot as I review the Purdue Owl Style guide. This is mostly because
things that were included in the old, “cozy”, contained website have been moved
to a more general location within the writing lab. This is as it should be. But
I actively searched for the Resumes and CVs section tucked away under the Job
Search Writing heading. Why? I supposed because I remember it being included at
one point in the old site, and our writing center has a lot of people who want
advice on resume writing. A hundred years ago, I was confident—even
cocky—regarding my own resume writing skills. This hubris soon disappeared as
students began asking questions like, “What should I include in my objective?”
This was something rigorously discouraged in the days of yore. Back in my
youth, I was told to let my experience tell the story. My experience and
previous job duties should be tailored to fit the prospective position. It was
likewise with hobbies and awards and volunteer work. If you are applying for a
job as a managing editor of a slick publication, you may mention the volunteer
editing you did for the newsletter for the local YWCA while leaving out the
hours you spent in the church soup kitchen. Suddenly, students were asking,
“How do I share my personal goals with companies that don’t really care about
them?” Okay, most students probably didn’t say the last part out loud. But I
realized with a huge jolt to my ego that I couldn’t help students because I no
longer knew how to write a resume.
But never fear,
the Purdue Owl site was there (along with other references). After
catching up, I was reasonably proficient at advising students in crafting
resumes with objectives that were general, but strongly reflected the goals of
the company. I was comfortable with this approach. Well, it has been a while
since I’ve checked the best practices of resume writing. Sigh. Now, it
seems you can’t trust that companies will recognize that although your personal
goals and objectives may extend beyond your commitment to the company, they
definitely include it! Now, the objectives must mention the company’s name and
be specific about what you can bring to the company. Yet, you don’t want to
overreach and have them assume you will want a promotion next year! So, in
essence, your objective becomes doing the job you are applying for well! I
wonder when personal objectives are predicted to disappear from resumes! But I
digress. Overall, the Resume and CV sections are well organized. However, I
continue to be confused by the duplication of reference tabs. It makes me
wonder if the tabs on the side lead to different information than the ones at
the bottom of the page. In the Resume section, the information was the same. In
the CV section, it was different. In the General Writing Guide, Purdue
has a section on the importance of parallelism…seems this would be important in
a website too!
January 23, 2023
Well, I finally got
around to the “How To” part of the Purdue Owl style guides. I looked at APA and
MLA formats (maybe, someday, I might look at Chicago. I don’t get a lot of
papers in Chicago, but I remember footnotes from high school and suspect we
used a modified version of the Chicago style.) Once again, I found the multiple
ways to access the information confusing and distracting. And you have probably
surmised that I am not the most tech savvy person, but when did innocent
looking headings (Capitalized and underlined) in a document become links?
Shouldn’t they at least be blue to let readers know, “Hey, look at me! I’m a
link!” After having accidently clicked on one of the headings in the MLA
section, I found a wealth of information. I like the examples of works cited
pages and other specific aspects of MLA (and APA) embedded and easily accessed
where they were discussed. I like the FAQ’s sections (I don’t remember if this
feature was included in the cozy website or not. To be honest, after checking
my citation, and making sure every comma was in the right place, I was too
tired to have any other questions.) I looked at the FAQ sections in both MLA
and APA. MLA questions tended to deal with citing electronic sources, and APA
questions tended to deal with missing information. There was also a “classroom
poster” for both styles that provided “at a glance” information, and, of
course, at the top of each section, was a citation generator! Yes, I think this
feature alone will ensure that the style guides will continue to be very
popular!
Well, this journey
through the past has directed me squarely to the present where the ever
evolving, yet eerily familiar quest for knowledge continues.
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