Writing Tutoring

Writing Tutoring

Writing tutoring sessions support students as they strive to think critically and communicate clearly across various writing assignments. Each writing assignment presents a unique opportunity to develop deeper thinking skills and to contribute to an academic, professional, or other audience. Within any writing assignment, writers engage in a complex and iterative process that involves many aspects of thinking, questioning, brainstorming, reading and re-reading, drafting, organizing, citing, revising, and editing. Since writing is inherently social, writing tutoring sessions offer a collaborative opportunity for writers to engage in conversation with a skilled and curious writing tutor. As writing tutors, we strive to make writing an active process of thinking for students during sessions, constantly involving them and inviting their choice and ownership in the process of exploring their ideas and developing strong writing habits. 

Students may visit a writing tutor at any part of their writing process, from idea generation to line editing. Writing tutoring sessions look different based on the uniqueness of each assignment and each student’s writing process, although there are many common examples.  Tutors and writers, partnered together, may do any of the following or more: 

• Read the prompt and converse on how an assignment relates to their prior learning and past experience before generating ideas

• Create an outline from previously identified or written ideas, discussing their logic and coherence in relation to each other  

• Collaboratively discussing a section of an assignment that is complex, tricky, or just really interesting,

• Engaging in intellectual conversation about the ideas being considered and compared against others. 

• Reflect on personal writing process, identifying habits and strengths that are effective and experimenting with new strategies that could be effective 

While every session is different, writing tutoring sessions can benefit any and all students at Endicott College. Since our mission is to inspire and encourage learning and metacognitive development across the curriculum, students should note that writing tutors do not proofread or edit student writing. While tutors may read student work with students and model examples to help students strengthen their own independent abilities to revise and edit their work, we do not do it for students. Furthermore, while we often provide feedback on students’ written work, we do not provide an estimation of the grade they might receive on a writing assignment. 

For the opportunity to learn with your peers in an informal community setting, see our community learning spaces opportunity.