What a Session Looks Like

My Coursework
As a professional tutor I have my own coursework of exercises, literature, and assignments for students to do in order to help them become excellent writers. I also work with students on their in-class papers and essays. I find that a mix of both works the best. I work with students on whatever area they need the most help with. My exercises and coursework includes:

• Understanding the expectations of the audience
• Comma usage
• Semi-colon usage
• Dash usage
• Weekly vocabulary
• Writing in the formal voice
• Using passive and active voices effectively
• Tense agreement
• Writing devices and phrases to avoid
• Excellent vs. average conclusions
• Using quotations correctly
• Understanding and refining connotations
• Understanding metaphors, symbolism, and themes
  
• Dangling and misplaced modifiers
• Paragraph transitions
• Writing an effective thesis and introduction
• Understanding the tone, style, and structure of literature
• Knowing about obfuscation
• Learning how to write literary commentary on elements of style
  
• Going above and beyond the expectations of the teacher
  

High School Literature
Like most colleges, high schools have a standardized literary canon; this is essentially a body of literature common to most schools. I have worked with these texts as well as many others. Some of these I have listed below for your convenience.

• The Joy Luck Club
• Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, etc
  
• Of Mice and Men
• The Giver
• Brave New World
• Lord of the Flies
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Scarlet Letter
• The Odyssey
• Night
• Heart of Darkness
• A Separate Peace
• Oedipus Rex
• The House on Mango Street
• Cry, the Beloved Country

College Level Papers
Below is a sample of the quality of writing I expect my students to develop.

• The Orphic Myth in the Sixteenth Century by Josh Schultz