"I am a creative and patient tutor with over 30 years of writing and tutoring experience. I have not only tutored writing but have been a writer myself in the business world. Over the years, I have won several writing awards. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Master of Science degree in Communications, both from Boston University.

My tutoring experience is very broad. I have tutored students in English, reading, and writing from many area schools including those who also require help in organizational skills. I also have helped high school students with researching and writing papers, developing thesis statements, analyzing assigned reading passages, developing a better vocabulary, and writing winning college essays. I have tutored 4th through 8th graders in reading comprehension, writing, grammar, and spelling. My experience includes tutoring for the SAT, SSAT/ISEE, PARCC, and MCAS tests. I have also tutored students at a local state university, many of whom were tackling English as a second language.

I like to start by finding out what my students already know and take my approach from there. Some students have a hard time with coming up with ideas to write about, others may need help with developing themes, and others might have weak vocabularies that limit their ability to write. Some younger students might have trouble with spelling or reading comprehension. My goal is to make learning to write and read fun for them rather than a tedious process that they have to simply get through. With younger students, I incorporate a lot of reading and writing games, use graphic organizers, and select topics to write about that are of interest to them. I sometimes ask them to use an IPAD to complete exercises. With the older students, I generally mix up writing exercises with vocabulary building and brainstorming on topics to write about. For those students who may have issues with executive functioning and organizational skills, I spend time suggesting ways to organize their assignments and use gra" less...