The Flight of the Purdue OWL

The Flight of the Purdue OWL: An Institutional History chronicles both the widely known Purdue OWL website and the lesser-known but much-celebrated on-campus writing center. Purdue University is renowned for its world-class STEM curriculum as well as its intercollegiate athletics. The university also receives considerable attention, however, for the OWL website, which is one of the most used educational resources in the world. The on-campus OWL is also a highly regarded collegiate writing center. This book tells the history of how the Purdue OWL grew out of decades of faculty working with students and their desire for a laboratory where innovative teaching (and later technology) could foster better written communication.

The authors draw from archival material, interviews with former staff, and personal experience as directors of the OWL to describe the events and principles that undergirded the OWL’s development from a small, one-room operation to a multilocation physical plant and a popular online writing resource. Chapters cover key moments during the tenure of the various directors, foundational principles of group programming that waxed and waned over time, the development of shared resources from mailed paper brochures to website offerings, insights into what consultants carry with them into the real world when they graduate, and an exploration of big-data research that has been a more recent innovation in the OWL’s history. Alongside these chapters, interchapters feature images that share the story of clients, consultants, and programs from the early days to the current moment. For a campus that prides itself on small steps leading to giant leaps related to innovation, the Purdue OWL maintains that tradition and strives to lead through its practices, research, and impact on the world.