Remote Tutoring Session Tips

In this guide, we’ll give you a few strategies to help you get the most out of your next remote tutoring session.

● Attach a complete prompt. Every tutoring session, whether synchronous or asynchronous, starts with identifying the goals of the assignment. The prompt helps the tutor understand the aim of your work.

● Be specific about which areas you’d like to work on. Your tutor will give advice on everything they encounter, from grammar, to structure, to word choice, and beyond. Sharing your specific goals just gives the tutor the opportunity to spend more time in those areas and provide resources you might find helpful.

● Ask questions. This is your chance to ask those lingering questions you may not feel comfortable asking a professor, such as: “Am I presenting enough analysis with my text evidence?” or “Does my conclusion simply restate my thesis?”

● Plan ahead. Give yourself as much time as possible to review the notes from the tutoring session and revise your essay so that you can think creatively and expansively about the possibilities for revision. Also, keep in mind that asynchronous sessions allow the tutor to respond within 24 hours from the start of the session, so you may not get your paper back until the following day. If you’re in a time crunch, consider a synchronous session.

● Revisit your writing. We encourage you to bring the same essay to tutoring at various stages; you can even come to a synchronous session just to talk through your ideas, before you’ve written a word. Tutoring gives you the tools not to be a faster writer, but to develop your own writing process in response to the demands of each essay assignment.