Tutoring
|
Tutoring is one of the ways that I seek to fulfill my obligation to serve my profession. For many students, the helping hand that one-on-one assistance offers is just what they need to get past a difficult time in their academic careers, and I know this first hand: Not only did I work as a tutor in Georgia State University’s highly regarded Writing Studio during the first year of my Ph.D. program, but during my Bachelor’s program at Georgia State in the 1990s, I desperately struggled to pass my program’s mathematics requirement, dropping half-a-dozen math classes before a skilled, committed tutor finally helped me succeed.
|
|
During the semester, I offer no-charge, one-on-one tutoring to my current students during my office hours and at other times during the week by appointment (and to my former students by appointment only). During breaks between semesters, I will tutor former students or anyone connected to former students (as well as any of my wife’s former students or anyone connected with them) by appointment only at mutually agreed public locations (such as fast-casual restaurants, coffee shops, or public libraries). As I consider this work service to my profession, I won’t typically charge a tutoring fee; however, I may ask for reasonable remuneration if I’m faced with parking or excessive travel expenses as the result of where we agree to meet.
With respect to the type of tutoring I offer, I can help with most English-related tasks, and this includes business and professional items, as well. Please note that my specialty is rhetoric and composition, not literature. Therefore, even though I have taught literature-based courses and can tutor students taking high school or undergraduate college-level literature courses, my expertise is not geared toward helping someone with graduate-level literature assignments. Also, though I have significant experience with composition and editing in various professions, my unfamiliarity with the highly specific conventions of some technical, scientific, and legal writing genres may make it hard for me to help people needing assistance in those areas.
Regarding the practical aspects of the tutoring I offer, I find that tutoring sessions work best when they a) aren’t too long, and b) don’t try to accomplish too much during a single meeting. Therefore, I believe that 30 to 60 minutes is a good guideline to follow for one session. If there is more work to be done or more issues to address than can be handled in one session, then scheduling multiple sessions is the most effective way to address this.
Keep in mind that my tutoring service is not an editing service; I don’t “fix” papers or tell you what to write or what to revise. Instead, I work with you to understand your purpose and the overall rhetorical situation related to that purpose. Once that is established, I help you learn and understand how to apply the conventions of good rhetorical practice, including composition skills like coming up with what to say, organizing how to say it, saying it the right way, and knowing how to revise and perfect it.
Needless to say, when you meet with me, you should bring any documents or materials required to help us both understand why you are doing what you are trying to do, what exactly it is that you must do, who will be evaluating what you are doing, and how it will be evaluated (for students, that typically means that you need to bring notes and, at the very minimum, an assignment sheet and/or a grading rubric related to the assignment).
To schedule a tutoring appointment, please send me an email including your name, contact information, how you know me, your availability and location, and all the information listed in the paragraph above (as much of it as you can provide, anyway). I will respond to your within 48 hours and we can discuss your tutoring needs.
Regarding the practical aspects of the tutoring I offer, I find that tutoring sessions work best when they a) aren’t too long, and b) don’t try to accomplish too much during a single meeting. Therefore, I believe that 30 to 60 minutes is a good guideline to follow for one session. If there is more work to be done or more issues to address than can be handled in one session, then scheduling multiple sessions is the most effective way to address this.
Keep in mind that my tutoring service is not an editing service; I don’t “fix” papers or tell you what to write or what to revise. Instead, I work with you to understand your purpose and the overall rhetorical situation related to that purpose. Once that is established, I help you learn and understand how to apply the conventions of good rhetorical practice, including composition skills like coming up with what to say, organizing how to say it, saying it the right way, and knowing how to revise and perfect it.
Needless to say, when you meet with me, you should bring any documents or materials required to help us both understand why you are doing what you are trying to do, what exactly it is that you must do, who will be evaluating what you are doing, and how it will be evaluated (for students, that typically means that you need to bring notes and, at the very minimum, an assignment sheet and/or a grading rubric related to the assignment).
To schedule a tutoring appointment, please send me an email including your name, contact information, how you know me, your availability and location, and all the information listed in the paragraph above (as much of it as you can provide, anyway). I will respond to your within 48 hours and we can discuss your tutoring needs.