The Purdue OWL is a great resource for students and writers. The OWL portion of the name is short for online writing lab. The OWL first arrived online in 1994. The Purdue OWL is one of the best known university writing labs available. It is also a top-notch writing resource.

The Purdue OWL covers many different writing topics and subjects from punctuation to technical writing. The OWL sitemap gives you a quick idea of the OWL's extensive range.

The Purdue OWL can be a great help to students through its APA and MLA guides. There is also advice on online researching, paraphrasing, punctuation, essay writing and much more. An exercise section, called OWL Exercises, enables students to test themselves on grammar, spelling, sentence structure and more. Another way the OWL is useful for students is through its job search writing section. This section helps students prepare the documents they may need to land a job, including cover letters and resumes.

Beginning and professional writers can also take advantage of the resource. There are detailed sections on technical writing, writing in engineering and healthcare writing. There is even a section on fiction writing.

The OWL also has a YouTube Channel, OWLPurdue that contains helpful videos for students. There are videos on thesis writing, MLA style, writing research papers, APA style, memo writing and more. Purdue OWL has been on YouTube since 2011.

Don't overlook the OWL regardless of your writing specialty, especially if you are a beginner. The Purdue OWL is provided by Purdue University in Indiana. Many other colleges and universities also provide online writing help. There are many more university writing centers.