Founded by Dr. Muriel Harris, the
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is an online repository of writing support materials maintained by the
Writing Lab at
Purdue University. The OWL is similar to a writing handbook containing resources about the writing process, research and citation, discipline-specific writing concerns, and grammar and punctuation. The OWL is freely accessible and fulfills Purdue's Land Grant mission. Users include, but aren't limited to, students and instructors in middle school, high school, and college; graduate students; parents; ESL/EFL learners; government employees; military personnel; and corporate trainers.
The OWL began as a gopher site in 1993, and users could request handouts by number. The OWL website went live in 1994 and has undergone several revisions and expansions during its twenty-year history. It is one of the most popular writing websites in the world with increasing numbers of users from around the world.
During the 2013-2014 academic year, the OWL transferred 26.21 TB of data and received:
- 246,338,566 page views
- 2,775,835,040 hits
- 80,634,125 visits
- 3,256 requests for visible links from other websites
- 5,455 requests to copy OWL materials.
The OWL currently contains 741 resources, which include web-based "handouts" and PowerPoint presentations. In addition, the
OWL YouTube channel contains 36 instructional videos on different writing-related topics. Additional information about the OWL can be found in the
Writing Lab's annual report.
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