"Hello! My name is Marie, and thank you for stopping by my profile! I have a bachelor’s degree in English from the State University of New York Cortland (2016) and a master’s degree in English from St. Bonaventure University (2018). During my time as a graduate student, I had the opportunity to gain experience as both a tutor and a teacher. I tutored for a year and a half in my university’s writing lab, where I helped students take papers written on many different subjects to the next level. Specifically, I read many papers for English, education, psychology, sociology, biology, and business courses.

As a tutor, I believe strongly in differentiating between “high order concerns” and “low order concerns.” High order concerns involve ensuring the paper has adequate content, effective organization, a strong thesis that is well supported, and appropriate outside sources when necessary. Once these concerns have been addressed, it is appropriate to move on on to low order concerns, such as vocabulary choices, grammatical errors, punctuation, tone, and the like. I find that students are sometimes surprised by the idea that grammar is a lower priority than the high order concerns named above. It is quite common that students arrive at a tutoring session feeling that their paper’s grammar is the thing most in need of fixing. While this is sometimes the case, it is my job as a tutor to ensure that the high order concerns are in order first, so that the end result is not a paper with flawless grammar but poor organization and underdeveloped content.

During my time as a college instructor, this was something I focused on constantly with my students. I am also very comfortable assisting students in the study of literature, the location of scholarly sources, the creation of outlines, and coming up with paper topics. I understand that it often feels vulnerable to share your writing with someone. I'm here to help, not to judge!" less...