Anne Trubek, left, and Elias Sardonis created the OWL this past summer.
			The Expository Writing Program Introduces Its OWL By Sue Kropp
			NOVEMBER 19, 1999--Anne Trubek, assistant professor of expository writing and English, spent two weeks of the past summer with an OWL--and no, she wasn't bird-watching! Trubek's OWL is the newest addition to Oberlin College's Expository Writing Program. The OWL--acronym for the Online Writing Lab--is a companion to the program's drop-in center, where trained peer tutors help students with their writing skills. OWLs are an increasingly common feature of college and university web sites, and Oberlin's OWL is a writing supplement for both students and faculty. The Oberlin Center for Technologically Enhanced Teaching (OCTET) funded the development of Oberlin's OWL with a Summer Educational Technology grant. Trubek developed the OWL over two weeks with then-rising senior Elias Sardonis, who designed the graphics for the site. Trubek defines the OWL as a collection of links to web sites that explore various aspects of writing. The OWL also features links to the Oberlin College library reference page and writing guides submitted by members of the Expository Writing Program. "By including submissions from the faculty, we've created a resource for writers that answers what each professor considers the most frequently asked questions about writing," says Trubek. "The OWL also acts as a resource for the faculty--helping them teach writing across the curriculum." While the OWL is a place for finding answers from Oberlin College faculty members, it also presents the Expository Writing Program with the opportunity to highlight interesting web sites related to writing. For example, students using Oberlin's OWL can link to Harvard's web site and access study guides that help writers develop arguments and conclude essays. Or they can link to the Columbia Guide to Online Style and learn how to cite electronic sources. The OWL even includes a specific link to teaching resources on the Expository Writing Program's web page, where professors and writing tutors can find handouts prepared by other Oberlin College faculty members. Trubek hopes the OWL will grow in time, and encourages faculty members to contribute their resource links and writing guides to the project. "We want faculty members from across campus to send us useful writing-related handouts they've written or links they've referred students to," says Trubek. "The OWL is for everyone--it's an interdisciplinary tool."
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