Essay Tutoring
Do you have an instructor who can help my child with essays for multiple subjects, or do I have to sign up with a History instructor, an English instructor, etc.?
At Next Level Learning we offer highly trained, professional writing instructors with wide-ranging skill sets and multiple strengths, so you generally don’t need to sign up with separate instructors. Regardless of the topic or project, from elementary, middle, and high school class papers and English writing assignments to college admissions essays and personal statements, Next Level’s professional writing instructors support students of all grades and levels as they challenge themselves and develop superior writing skills.
I don’t want an instructor to simply red-line papers. My child needs to learn actual writing skills. Do you do that?
Part of Next Level’s ethos is to help students learn how to write. It would be unhelpful (and unethical) for an instructor to simply direct changes to a paper, or worse, write it for the student. Our instructors are trained to teach actual writing skills (outlining, identifying a topic sentence, fleshing out a theme, creating a compelling thesis, and working to a coherent conclusion). At Next Level our expert writing instructors know how to inspire students and generate enthusiasm about writing projects.
Our instructors will tailor sessions that address the strengths and weaknesses of each unique student. Some students are capable of writing thesis statements but don’t know where to go from there; others have myriad ideas but don’t know how to organize them into a coherent theme; and still others can organize and write well but tend to remain somewhat “on the surface.” Our instructors identify these weaknesses and teach students specific strategies to mitigate them. Ultimately, the goal is to create a stronger, more confident and autonomous writer whose skills will serve him or her for the rest of their life.
At Next Level, we are also work with students who have always struggled with writing and operate on more of a beginner level, all the way through to sophisticated, successful writers who simply need support refining or editing a project.
My child needs to work on writing but doesn’t always have an essay assigned. Can your instructors create an assignment?
Our instructors relish opportunities to create captivating assignments, particularly with input from their students. The more engaged a student is with a topic, the easier it becomes to remediate a particular weakness. Conversely, instructors can also assign uninteresting topics so students can practice ways to become (and sound on paper) more engaged when faced with a dull topic.
I was a pretty good writer in school, so why is it so hard for my kid to write well?
Parents who were good writers in childhood often become effortless writers in adulthood. If writing wasn’t an obstacle for you, it can be difficult to understand how challenging writing can be for your child. Because writing essays draws on a variety of cognitive skills (brainstorming, reading, transferring thoughts to written expression, spelling, punctuation, and so forth), a student’s brain can easily become overloaded as they try to put it all together in one fell swoop.
For example, many students benefit from separating the writing process into phases, saving editing for last. It can be difficult for a parent to help a child with an essay in its early phases and not feel compelled to point out all the small issues, but it is still crucial to allow the child to write in phases (most commonly: brainstorm, outline, draft one, draft two, edit). As most accomplished writers will attest, successful writing often starts out looking pretty ugly and then transforms into greater coherency and refinement as the process unfolds.
What’s next?
Learning proper writing technique and developing confidence to attack an essay is easily overlooked at various points in a student’s development for a variety of reasons, which is why Next Level’s writing instructors are trained to identify gaps in writing skills and focus on specific features — techniques, methods, styles, strategies — that can dramatically improve a student’s confidence and writing ability. Please contact Next Level Learning to obtain the best essay writing tutoring in New York.