Welcome to The Reading Room, the place in the Online Writing Lab (OWL) where you'll find interested readers for your writing.

Yes, writing well is a challenge, yet despite, or maybe because of the challenge, writing can be freeing, exciting, fun, and deeply gratifying.

Good writing isn't just about mastering the conventions of grammar, spelling, and mechanics although that mastery is certainly part of good writing. Writing well is also about courage, patience, self-criticism, and insight. Good writers have the courage to explore new thoughts, the patience to find just the right word or phrase, the self-criticism to re-see and revise, and the insight to consider the needs and reactions of a reader.

Still, it is often difficult for writers to be objective about their own writing. Ideas and phrases that make perfect sense to a writer may make no sense to a reader. For that reason, then, letting someone read and respond to your first drafts could really help you re-see what you've written.

Having an interested and respectful reader helps writers in two ways:

• In the short term, readers provide writers with some concrete information that they'll need to make decisions about their drafts in progress
• In the long term, readers can help writers consider the needs of their prospective audience

The Reading Room's staff provides free written feedback for any writing assignment. Writers can access The Reading Room at home, school, or anywhere else they have access to the Internet, and we will try our best to reply within 24 hours.

Our readers respond as your audience:

• We will point out how your piece reads, its strengths and weaknesses
• We will ask you questions if we don't understand something we've read
• We'll make suggestions about what would give a general reader more satisfaction

Advantages of The Reading Room:

• Writers can sometimes benefit from an anonymous setting
• Writers can develop critical thinking skills by reading comments about their writing in writing
• Writers can print their Reader's remarks and refer back to them as often as needed
• Writers get to experience working with new technology
• Writers can send their writing any time of the day, from anywhere they have an Internet connection
• Readers have more time to think over their response

Disadvantages of The Reading Room:

• Immediacy of one-on-one interaction is gone
• Opportunity for immediate feedback is not always there
• Chance of miscommunication might occur
• Some writing problems might be difficult to handle in the online environment

So, if you are ready to try the Reading Room . . .