Important Announcements
- OWL will now close at 6pm PT on Fridays and reopen on Mondays at 12am PT (midnight). Please plan accordingly now that OWL is closed on the weekends.
- You can make an appointment to get live, one-on-one writing help in the Writing Lab and choose to meet your tutor on campus or by Zoom video conferencing.
- Please view a brief tutorial video below on how to successfully complete the OWL submission form.
- You may submit up to 1,000 words two times each week. (Why is there a limit?)
- We respond to submissions within 24 hours. Please email OWL@academyart.edu if you do not receive a tutor response within 24 hours of your submission.
- You will need a word processing program like Microsoft Word or NeoOffice to open and view our responses.
- OWL tutors do not correct grammar or edit your writing; we explain your most serious problems and make suggestions about how to fix them.
- The OWL responds to Midpoint Review and Final Review written proposals.
- We close on all school holidays, at noon the day before the semester ends, and during intersession.
- You should see an OWL submission form confirmation page (click here for an example) if your submission was received by the OWL. If you do not see that page and do not receive a confirmation email shortly after you submit your essay, that means OWL did not receive your submission. Please email OWL@academyart.edu if you are having problems submitting your writing.
Tutorial Video: How to Complete the OWL Form
Why is there a submission limit? Why can’t I submit my whole paper?
We would love to be able to help all students as much as possible, but since the Online Writing Lab (OWL) is open five days a week and is available to every student in the school, this is not possible. We want to give all students a chance to get advice from our tutors up to two times each week; that’s why we have a submission limit of 1,000 words per submission. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
To get the most out of your submissions:
- Read and fill out the submission form very carefully.
- Submit only the parts of your writing assignments that you are most worried about.
- Begin writing your assignment early so you can submit all parts of the assignment over the course of several weeks.
- Read the advice that your tutor gives you very carefully and try to apply it to your whole paper.
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What is a detailed assignment description? Why do I need to give my tutor a detailed assignment description?
Detailed assignment descriptions are the instructions that your teacher gives you to complete an assignment. These instructions may include the topic or choice of topics, specific questions that you need to answer, the format, the length, and the due date for the assignment.
OWL tutors need to see these descriptions in order to make sure that you are doing the assignment correctly and to give you the best advice possible. You can copy and paste detailed assignment descriptions from your online classes or copy them from your instructors’ handouts.
Here’s an example:
Write a 1,000 word essay in which you compare and contrast Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and Giovanna Tornabuoni by Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Your essay is due at the end of Module 6 and should include the following:
- An introduction, including a thesis statement that tells the reader the main point of the essay
- The stylistic characteristics of both artworks
- The subject matter of both artworks
- The function and possible meaning of both artworks
- The similarities and differences between the two artworks
- A conclusion that recaps the thesis and includes important insights about the artwork and why you chose to write about the artwork.
- A list of your sources of information in MLA format
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