Purdue University publishes an excellent collection of handouts and exercises on its Online Writing Lab (OWL) website. These handouts are available for students all over the world to download and print. Be sure, however, that you comply with the Terms and Conditions of Fair Use published on the Purdue OWL website.
Click here to visit the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL).
Handouts for All Writers
- Avoiding Ableist Language
- Avoiding Sexist Language
- Commonly Misused Words (Stumpers)
- Finding a Thesis
- List of Cliches
- Proofreading Tips
- Providing Examples
- Racism in the English Language
- Resume Writing
- Rhetorical Patterns
- Show, Don’t Tell
- Thesis Development Worksheet
- Ways to Cure Writer’s Block
- Writing Effective Academic Papers
Handouts for Writing Center Tutors
- Brainstorming Map
- Evaluating Effective Writing
- Hierarchy of Comments
- How to be an Effective Tutor
- Plagiarism and the WL
- Proofreading Tips
- Revision Worksheet
- Thesis Development Worksheet
- What the WL Can and Can’t Do
- Working with ELL Students
- Writing Tutor Manual
Citations, Formatting, and Plagiarism
Mechanics and Grammar
- Active vs. Passive Voice
- Abbreviations
- Apostrophes
- Capitals
- Commas, Colons, and Semicolons
- Coordination and Subordination
- End Marks
- Fragments
- Hyphens, Dashes, Parentheses, and Brackets
- -ing Openers
- Intransitive and Transitive Verbs
- Numbers
- Parts of Speech
- Plurals
- Possession
- Pronouns
- Punctuation Errors
- Punctuation Pattern
- Quotes
- Run-Ons
- Spelling
- Subordination
- Tense
- Titles
- Transitions