Focused Test Prep
- All material for SAT, ACT, PSAT, SSAT, ISEE, HSPT, Walls test
Tutoring Subjects
- Study skills including time management
- English/literature
- writing (see "On Writing" below)
- subject math through algebra I and geometry
- US history
Skill building and coaching
- study skills
- AD/HD coaching
- exam prep
- time management, daily and weekly organization
- advanced reading comprehension
- essay-writing
- test-taking
College Essays
- planning and editing for college application essays
On Writing
“The great art of writing is the art of making people real to themselves with words.”—Logan Pearsall Smith
“Another damned thick book!
Always scribble, scribble, scribble!
Eh, Mr. Gibbon?”—Duke of Gloucester on receiving Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Until graduate school I never had a teacher show me, step by step, how to organize a paper.
Clarity in essay writing grows out of having a solid argument. An argument relies on clear structure in which each sentence grows out of the last. There is a progression of thought that is transparent and satisfying. The teaching of argumentation is the basis for the teaching of writing.
The foundation for good essay writing can be taught. Early on, writers learn by editing others, and over time learn to become editors of their own work. With time, a writer develops an eye (and ear) for the right word or sentence—and, most of all, an eye for a good argument.
Good writing also grows out of a passion for reading. In high school I had an English teacher who tied discussions of books to his students’ questions about life’s choices and problems. Somewhere between reading The Scarlet Letter and The Return of the Native, I was hooked; I wanted to think about what I read and how it was structured.
As a tutor, I enjoy helping students discover an appreciation for good writing.
“In composition, I do not think second thoughts are best.”—Lord Byron