VOA标准英语2010年-Website of the Week — Purdue Online

Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative¹ online destinations.

This time it's an educational site where you can find more than 200 ways to improve your English.

 "The Purdue Online Writing Lab is a sizeable collection of workshops, worksheets, [and] instructional materials in both English language and the various genres² in which students and people working in the world are expected to write," says Linda Bergmann, director of the lab.

The lab includes an on-campus facility where students can hone their English skills, as well as the Online Writing Lab, known as the OWL³, at owl.english.purdue.edu.

Bergmann says the goal is to provide users with a broad range of tools to boost their proficiency⁴ in written English.

"Everything from basic language skills of agreement of subject and verb, use of commas and other punctuation⁵, complete and incomplete sentences, so that we can move from basic writing/language skills to the more sophisticated skills that graduate students, upper level undergraduates and people in the work world use."

The OWL was launched in the early days of the Web, back in 1994, and has built a global following from people who want to write better English.

"We get a lot of thank-you notes from people around the world, and also some schools in other countries use it as a writing handbook, as do some schools in the United States," Bergmann says.

If you want to polish your English, follow the link to the Purdue Online Writing Lab at owl.english.purdue.edu.

 

1 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

2 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

3 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

4 proficiency   

n.精通，熟练，精练

参考例句：

• He plied his trade and gained proficiency in it.他勤习手艺，技术渐渐达到了十分娴熟的地步。
• How do you think of your proficiency in written and spoken English?你认为你的书面英语和口语熟练程度如何？

5 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。