3 Reasons Writing Tutoring Doesn’t Work Out

In NYC, countless professional writers have side gigs as writing tutors or coaches...but their writing successes don’t always make them the best guide for your student.

1) Tutors Lack This One Key Thing

...the ability to connect with young people! It doesn't matter how knowledgeable on writing and pedagogy a tutor is if they can't find a way to connect with their students.

Connection is a hugely important part of 1-1 work.

• It's the difference between your kid willingly attending their coaching session and resenting it.

• It's the difference between learning and growing, and feeling too vulnerable to risk the effort of trying.

• In my sessions, connection allows for laughter and confidence—not drudgery.

2) Tutors Focus Too Much On Connection, But Lack Strategy

Connection is hugely important, but it has to be paired with powerful, effective strategies that supplement a student's classroom learning. Simply guiding a student through an outline, or editing a student's rough draft, teaches them almost nothing about the writing process...and instead creates dependency.

That's why, in my 11 years of writing coaching, I've developed and fine-tuned four key strategies:

• Mini-prompts, a student favorite that allows them to access their voice, ideas, and creativity in every assignment.

• The Messy Model: A POWERHOUSE means of helping students not only access their voice, but take their ideas from the earliest iteration all the way through a polished final draft—while learning writing tools, techniques, and conventions along the way.

• A color-coding system of organization to help students not only understand essay structure, but to learn revision and organizational skills as they go.

• A read aloud policy that enforces the importance of polishing, not simply relying on faulty AI systems like Grammarly and spellcheck without students looking more closely at their work.

3) Tutors Simply Over-Edit

Often, tutors feel pressure: They're charging a high hourly rate and want to make it worth everyone's while with a high grade or prestigious school admission. Over-editing is an all too common misstep in the world of private tutoring and coaching—and at best, it teaches the student nothing at all.

At worst, it undermines their voice, ideas, and capacity for learning.

• My job as a coach is to teach your student not only how to learn to be stronger writers, but that they can learn.

• When students learn to access their own, unique voice, ideas, and creativity, they transform their entire relationship to writing.

• Their newfound confidence as writers will empower and serve them for the rest of their lives.

My coaching offers meaningful connections, concrete strategies, and a REFUSAL to over-edit (that my students tend to both groan about and appreciate).

Does my approach resonate? Join my newsletter below, and contact Write Well Brooklyn here.