Tutoring Masters’ student

I have been doing some tutoring work with a Masters’ student in the Faculty of Arts at Sydney University. In fact, rather than tutoring on subject matter, we have been working on strategies to improve writing skills. I started by listening to the student discuss the research and what she wanted to say about it in the essay she was writing as part of her coursework. We then came up with a title that was not too broad that it would be difficult to structure the essay and had an angle that was interesting and focused. We then set about defining the actual outline of the essay starting of course with the introduction.

BTW, someone told me when I was doing my Honours year that you need to be able to put your thesis on a postage stamp. If you can succinctly say what your overall thesis is, you have something to keep you focused on the topic and avoid including subject matter that might be great but doesn’t fit. Once you have a one or two sentence statement (not quite a postage stamp), pin it on the wall and keep referring to it as you work through the research and writing processes.

Once we had the outline, which consisted of introduction, part 1 subtopic, part 2 subtopic and conclusion, we broke the parts down even further defining the different elements that would support the claims and defined the word length for the introduction and conclusion of each part, each point being made, and the connective sentences. This type of micro-management of an essay helps to make sure that the actual content is on topic.

The essay has now been submitted. The student is ecstatic – she says it is her best work by far and now we’re both optimistic of a good mark.

Good writing takes time and effort. Once you develop a topic and a structure to work to, the project becomes much more manageable and it is so much easier to write a great essay.

See my publishing tips on using connective words in sentences to help readability and hold your reader’s attention.

Read about the mark that the student was awarded.

Tags: Tutoring, writing skills