University of Texas at Austin

The best features of this OWL are its excellent handouts and links to research and educational resources. Unfortunately, navigation is confusing and paper submission is not an option.

Ease of Navigation

Non-Techie Perspective:

Initially, I thought the University of Texas at Austin's OWL's cover page was very nice, with unique graphics and links to other portions of the OWL all listed together. However, from that point on, I was lost in illogical links and a maze of resources. I am still not sure if I can submit a paper to University of Texas at Austin for a critique. If I can, I am not sure how or where to do so. I know that they offerlinks to additional resources, but when I return, I am unable to find the resources again. It makes me feel like a traveler lost in heavy fog on the info-superhighway. I give UT 2 hoots. HOOT HOOT

Techie Perspective:

Rating: Three Hoots

I found this site to be rather confusing. The main page has nice graphics and a very good layout. However, the subsequent pages were hard to navigate. There are many, many levels in the hierarchy and it was difficult to remember where I was and where I had been. On the page that told about the staff at the OWL, there were no titles or graphics and way too much text. Worse still, the OWL claims to have updated the site in August of 1997 but was still listing the summer hours as current.

I was not at all impressed with this site. It appears to me that someone spent a good deal of time thinking about how he or she wanted the main page to look and work and then threw the rest of the pages together.

Feedback on Submitted Paper

This website is a description of the University's face-to-face tutoring center. This site is not a full-fledged OWL, therefore the test paper could not be submitted and a rating of "one" is given.
UT Austin's services are available only to currently enrolled UT undergraduates.

Turnaround time: Not applicable.
Promised turnaround: Not applicable.
Day submitted: Not applicable.
Day of response: Not applicable.

Format for submission: Not applicable.

Difficulty level: Not applicable.

Amount of feedback: Not applicable.

Quality of feedback: Not applicable.

Staff qualifications: "Experienced graduate and undergraduate students specifically trained to offer you the help you need."

Additional features: Online handouts are offered. The site's FAQ page states that the OWL plans to offer electronic conferencing in the future. "Students who are able to visit the Writing Center [will be able to] transmit a draft essay of other writing project and receive comments from a writing consultant." The site also plans to offer software for students to use in detecting writing problems themselves.

Handouts

This site has information on everything from grammar to helping a friend with grammar. This OWL has enough handouts to help a student with any problem, but not so many to turn the student away. It also has links to OWL giants Purdue and Missouri.

I really enjoyed working on this OWL because it was easy to access; my writing problems were readily apparent and resolvable through the online handouts. The clear, concise material and helpful information this site offers earns UT Austin's OWL 4 hoots.

Other Resources

Excellent Research and Educational Resources--for example, Harvard University Resource for Writers. This section contains a variety of resources for students and teachers of English.
The Writer's Block, UWC's newsletter--the topic of the month is "Rogue Apostrophe's"--contains articles on writing and creative writing pieces

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