Tutoring

We provide services for English Literature and Language Arts students in high school, junior high or for students of English as a second or foreign language.

My wife and I provide an online tutoring service.

I am an experienced high school English teacher with some experience teaching university. She is an experienced junior high/high school English Teacher. Between us we have five degrees and over 50 years teaching experience.

What are the advantages of online Tutoring?

	It is very cost efficient. There is no time wasted in this. We start the work; we finish the work. You're not billed for chit chat, for coffee time, for travel. Because you do the work on your own time and then send it to us, you are not billed for us just sitting there watching you. You also don't have to worry about to/from or having people come into your home.
	The medium is the message. Today's students are computer literate and many prefer to work and spend time on their computers rather than with pen and paper. Word processing has tremendous advantages, one of which IS NOT spell check or grammar check.
	Well, believe it or not, students (and people in general) can be much more open to computer pals (teachers) than they can be to teachers in real life.
	OnLine Tutoring can be done at just about any time.
	Feedback can be pretty fast. Everyone needs quick feedback for his/her work. Assignments passed in to the average overworked teacher who may be dealing with over 100 students often take time to correct. The teacher may not have time to do justice to any given assignment. (If a teacher corrects 100 assignments a week, and spends 10 minutes on an assignment, that equals approximately 16 hours work. Most English teachers do AT LEAST this much work in addition to preparation and class work, each week.) We have the luxury of limiting our work to what we can handle.
	We analyze your work and set up online classes/assignments that will address your specific needs.
	Really though, face to face tutoring with someone you know and trust is always better. We may be able to do that for you too if we're in your area. Contact us. We can provide classes at home for any of you who do home schooling. We can do groups. ($25.00 an hour for one, $40.00 an hour for two, $50.00 an hour for three to five. Five is the maximum. The minimum in all these cases would be four hours a month. (If we should get carried away and go over an hour at a session, that's free. We enjoy it too!)

We can help you in any or all of the following ways:

	Through e-mail
	Through video conferencing
	Through a combination of both of the above
	Through instant messaging (AIM, MSN)
	At home (if you're in our area)

What can we do for you?

	We can correct/proofread your work and make suggestions as to how you can improve your writing. Please note: We will correct/proofread ONLY, and make suggestions ONLY. We will not* rewrite work for you. Any rewriting that is to be done must be done by you.*
	IF you provide us with the assignment parameters we can evaluate whether or not you have met those parameters.
	IF your work is in response to a specific question, we can attempt to determine if you have answered the question and provide you with a critique of your answer.
	IF your work is a research paper, we can determine whether or not your research is appropriate, whether you've addressed your thesis statement properly, and whether the form and structure are correct. We cannot address any specific demands made by your teacher unless we are aware of them.
	IF your work is analysis (poetry/literature) we can determine whether your analysis is valid and whether your approach is valid.
	If you need to discuss something in real time, we can do this through video conferencing if you have that capability. If you don't, but your computer is capable of it, we can help you set it up.
	We will answer any/all questions you might have about: usage, grammar, idiom, meaning, connotations, etc. Simply email your question to us, or contact us on instant messenger, and we'll work with you immediately to clarify any questions or concerns you might have.
	If you have an assignment and you don't quite understand what's wanted or needed, we'll work with you to try to clarify your understanding.
	We there's anything else you think we may be able to help you with, just ask. We'll do our best and we'll give you an honest answer if we don't think we can help.

How will this help you?

	At the very minimum, you will pass in work that is relatively mistake free. (We cannot guarantee that we will spot all errors, but we will certainly point out most of them. Nor can we guarantee that we can address the idiosyncrasies of every teacher, and we all have them.)
	At most, your writing style and approach will improve and your analytical methods will improve.
	Your grades should move up AT LEAST one notch. We would hope for more.

How does this work?

	You e-mail us your work, complete with the assignment instructions you have received from your teacher. (The work MUST BE in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Works format or in WordPad.) We will highlight mistakes, put structure suggestions in comment boxes, and place our critique at the end of the work.)
	We guarantee we will return this work to you, corrected and with suggestions, within 24 hours of having received it. (This means, of course, that you cannot leave your work until the last minute.) In most cases, if we receive your work before 10 pm, we will be able to work on it immediately and return it to you within hours, but we certainly can't guarantee this.)
	If it IS a last minute thing, we MAY be online and MAY be able to help you. We will give you our instant messengers usernames (both AIM and MSN) and you can try to contact us for help. There will be no extra charge for this if you are a regular student of ours.
	If you need video conferencing we will make arrangements for a specific time to do so.

What do we charge? How do you pay?

	In any given session, we charge $15.00 for the first half hour, and $10.00 for every half hour after that. So, if it takes us one hour to correct, edit and make suggestions for your work, that would cost you $25.00. Most regular assignments we would be able to handle in less than a half hour. It's only lengthy assignments that would take more time. If you'd like an estimate as to how long it will take, just send your work along and we'll do that for you at no charge. $15.00 is the minimum charge. The same costs apply to video conferencing (MSN Messenger only). Special arrangements may be made for extended contracts. Please contact us. These rates will drop if you'd like to enter into a long term contract. Contact us for any specific arrangements you'd like to make.
	You may pay by PayPal or by personal cheque. If you pay by PayPal, pay the minimum $15.00 immediately. We will correct the work and send it back to you with an invoice for the balance. Again, most regular assignments probably won't take us more than a half hour to correct. If you'd like the estimate before we proceed, we can do that. Our estimate is binding on us. You will not be charged more. You may be charged less. If you wish to pay by personal cheque, then all arrangements must be made well in advance and we'd suggest that you prepay for a specific time period. For example, you may wish to pay for three hours ($65.00). That will allow you send work in to us at any time or consult us at any time. Any unused funds will be returned.
	If there's some other arrangement you'd like, just contact us. I'm sure we can work something out.