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Online Writing Lab notices
increase in visitors
to site
By Laura Pelner
Campus
Editor
From August 2000 to August 2001 Purdue's Online
Writing Lab received almost 5.9 million hits and had visitors from all
over the world.
Compared to a year ago, the site's usage increased
by more than three million during the 12-month period.
"One of the big reasons is there's more people
using the Internet now then a year ago," said Erin Karper, webmaster
for the online lab. "But also, I think our site's really popular among
people who teach English as a second language. Lots of people link to
our site, that's how we get visitors."
In the last year the online lab, which is actually
part of the on-campus writing lab, had visits from all over the United
States and countries on six of the seven continents. For example, there
were visitors from Canada, Mexico, Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia,
Singapore, Spain, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Hungary, India,
El Salvador and Argentina.
The online lab has information covering a variety
of topics from grammar use to more specific writing techniques. There
are pages about research papers and resumes, as well as online workshops
and tutorials.
"We're glad to share the materials," said Muriel
Harris, director of the on-campus lab. "Initially we made them available
for Purdue students, that was our intent. (However the online site)
has helped Purdue become more visible around the world."
Harris said she never expected the online lab would
get so much use. "We weren't really thinking beyond the campus, the
site just mushroomed," she said.
Those who run the online lab have a "love letter
file" filled with positive feedback about the site, said Harris.
"One guy from Berkley wrote and said he's glad
to hear there's more than football at Purdue," she said.
Another letter from a high school teacher thanked
Purdue for hosting the site. The teacher said his school hadn't ordered
new books in five years so he used the site in his class.
"I feel like we're really doing a service for people,"
Harris said.
The online lab's purpose is to complement Purdue's
on-campus lab in Heavilon Hall. "We don't want to let (the online site)
overshadow the work we do in the West Lafayette lab though, because
serving people on this campus, face to face, is very important to us,"
said Karper.
However, people haven't forgotten about the on-campus
lab and it also had an increase in visitors last year.
Harris said that last spring something like 15,000
groups used the lab's workshops, handouts and tutors.
Jessica Clark, a graduate student and tutor in
the lab, said she sees more students every day. "I've had a really interesting
variety, even in the past few weeks, of people from English 101 and
102 to grad students with really technical engineering papers," Clark
said.
The lab, which is located in Room 226 of Heavilon
Hall, is available for anyone on campus. The Web site can be accessed
at http://owl.english.purdue.edu.
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Online
Writing Lab notices increase in visitors to site
CAMPUS DESK PHONE:
(765)
743-1111 ext. 253
Campus editor:
Laura Pelner
Assistant campus
editors: Kurt Esposito,
Dave Stephens
To
send a letter to the editor, please email opinions@purdueexponent.org
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