[ti:Need Help With Your Writing? Try This Web Site] [ar:Bob Gotkin] [al:Education Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:03.35]Education Report. [00:04.99]Many colleges and universities [00:08.56]in the United States [00:10.03]have writing centers [00:11.68]to help students [00:13.17]improve their skills. [00:14.78]Some materials are available free [00:17.94]at Web sites like [00:19.70]the Purdue Online Writing Lab,or OWL. [00:24.38]The site is connected [00:26.17]to the Writing Lab [00:27.12]at Purdue University [00:29.15]in West Lafayette,Indiana. [00:31.90]It includes resources that can help [00:35.24]non-native English speakers. [00:37.19]VOA's Art Chimes recently spoke [00:41.52]with the director,Linda Bergmann. [00:43.86]"The Purdue Online Writing Lab [00:45.88]is a sizeable collection [00:49.38]of workshops,worksheets, [00:52.62]instructional materials [00:54.12]in both English language [00:56.54]and in various genres [00:59.11]in which students and people [01:01.32]working in the world [01:02.92]are expected to write." [01:04.11]For instance,even native speakers [01:07.08]are often not sure [01:09.47]when to use "lie" [01:10.88]and when to use "lay." [01:12.51]The site gives [01:13.95]these example sentences: [01:15.47]"After laying down his weapon, [01:18.16]the soldier lay down to sleep." [01:20.96]"Will you lay out my clothes [01:23.74]while I lie down to rest?" [01:25.81]The problem is that "lie" [01:29.00]also means to not tell the truth, [01:32.04]as in "I lied to my mother." [01:34.96]So you would say in the past tense [01:38.12]"I lay on the bed [01:39.92]because I was tired." [01:41.95]The Purdue Online Writing Lab [01:45.45]also explains how to use [01:47.83]an apostrophe correctly [01:49.69]in possessives and other cases. [01:52.59]People often add an apostrophe [01:55.55]to "its" in a sentence like [01:57.96]"The group made its decision." [02:00.05]There should be no apostrophe [02:02.58]because what you mean is that [02:05.11]the decision belongs to the group. [02:07.43]"It's" with an apostrophe is short [02:10.81]for "it is," as in "It's raining." [02:15.21]The Purdue Online Writing Lab [02:18.28]also explains [02:20.26]how to organize papers [02:21.89]and avoid plagiarizing [02:24.08]other peoples' work. [02:25.30]And it provides a guide [02:27.71]to higher education [02:29.26]in the United States, [02:30.46]including explanations [02:32.27]of commonly used terms. [02:34.05]Director Linda Bergmann says [02:37.54]the goal is to provide [02:38.97]as many tools as possible. [02:40.71]"Everything from [02:42.03]basic language skills [02:43.51]of agreement of subject and verb, [02:45.79]use of commas [02:46.74]and other punctuation, [02:48.07]complete and incomplete sentences, [02:50.18]so that we can move from [02:52.50]basic writing/language skills [02:54.61]to the more sophisticated skills [02:57.61]that graduate students, [02:58.84]upper level undergraduates [03:00.37]and people in the work world use." [03:01.95]The Web site was started [03:03.72]in nineteen ninety-four [03:06.57]and has plenty of fans. [03:09.32]"We get a lot of thank you notes [03:11.35]from people around the world. [03:12.83]And also some schools [03:14.85]in other countries [03:16.10]use it as a writing handbook, [03:19.03]as do some schools [03:20.50]in the United States." [03:21.77]In all, [03:22.51]the Purdue Online Writing Lab [03:25.23]offers over two hundred [03:27.31]free resources [03:28.43]for writing and research. [03:30.31]The address is [03:32.30]owl.english.purdue.edu. [03:36.64]For a link,and to learn more [03:39.59]about higher education in America, [03:41.86]go to our Web site, [03:43.34]www.51voa.com. [03:47.23]And that's the VOA Special English [03:51.07]Education Report, [03:52.52]written by Nancy Steinbach. [03:54.74]I'm Bob Gotkin.