Sample Revisions

College Essay Tutoring focuses on two different aspects of the writing process:  planning, (including subject matter and writing strategies), and the mechanics of the essay itself.  Our conversations will focus on the former — identifying your strengths and structuring your essay to ensure you shine.  For mechanics, we’ll share documents and edits in Google Docs.  Doing so provides a permanent record of the “before” and “after” essays, as well as our comments to each other, to serve as an ongoing learning tool.

Taken from an Honors English essay, the text and corrections pictured below represent the kind of tutoring and editing you can expect, including:

• removing unnecessary words
• sharpening your meaning with exact word choice
• explaining fine points of grammar (e.g. may vs. might)
• suggesting additional evidence to bolster arguments
• correcting spelling and punctuation errors

Editing and comments are personalized, depending on your individual needs. As you develop as a writer, expect to see fewer edits and more comments or suggestions from me. We’ll discuss tone and diction as you develop your own writing voice.

How Does College Essay Tutoring Work?

First, let’s talk.

A student and I will connect via video chat, and talk about where s/he is in the application process.  Have a list of schools? Know what the essay requirements are?  Written any essays yet?  Know what you want to write about?

Then we’ll brainstorm some essay topics based on prompts from the Common Application, and/or applications from target schools.  Often, I’ll review the list of target schools and organize which schools use the same applications, what the questions are for each application, whether there are additional writing requirements. This document can serve as a checklist for completing our work.

If the student hasn’t drafted any essays yet, I ask to read one or two recent school papers, to get a sense of her/his style and abilities.  Ideally, each editing job takes less time than the last, as the student learns how to identify and correct errors, and strengthens her/his writing.

Most of our work — the student’s writing and my editing — takes place separately, of course.  But I am always available to meet to discuss any editing suggestions or comments I’ve made on an essay draft.  So future face-to-face / video chat sessions will focus on any questions about edited essays, and strategies for writing new ones. We can proceed at whatever pace is most comfortable for the student.