2023 was eventful and in many ways stressful, yet it presented hope for growth in my tutoring business through WYZANT.com Learning Studio.
Early in December ‘23, I was grateful when my first WYZANT student accepted my application for a job. We met for 3 sessions and they progressed well. They said they were pleased to work with me and that I’d been helpful to their writing process. Yet they did not leave a rating or a review.
Ratings and reviews—that’s what other students or their parents look at to see if they want to request me to be their tutor. I try really hard to provide each student/writer the coaching and help they need to become better writers and to polish the essay they are drafting or revising at the moment. I need my tutoring students to leave ratings and good reviews. I’ve received mostly 5* reviews. However, I’m grateful for every review. Some point out what they want me to do differently. Some may be irritated with tutors before they get to me, and some may have nothing good to say about me. Their reviews are also valuable to me to help me learn how to better serve their needs.
A couple weeks after that first Wyzant student, a doctoral student selected me to review a critical report 2 days before it was due. I agreed to begin immediately and review their report until my next appointment (which was a Christmas gathering with musician friends). I’d return to finish posting my review to them at a specified time that same evening. They accepted these timeframes.
After working 20 minutes past the time I told them I needed to stop, as soon as we were on our way to the gathering, I continued to review and mark the draft for 30 minutes on the road, each way. On return to the Learning Studio a half hour before I’d promised, I added in-line comments. Then I noticed a message from the doctoral student.
They had messaged to say, “Thank you, but I need someone who understands the doctorate and content perspective.” I responded, a bit offended, that I do understand the Doctorate and content perspective. They’d hired me to proofread and help with clarity of language. So that is what I reviewed in the document. And those were the highlights I’d made on the doc. I left comments where the language was unclear—did not communicate a clear idea. I finished commenting, sent them a link to the reviewed doc and, as I always do, sent a link to the Summary Response form with definitions, examples, and some links to further explain the language commentary I’d left.
I charged them for 20 minutes less than I’d informed them I’d spent Reviewing and commenting on the doc. They paid my full rate (of which WYZANT gives me only 75%). The doctoral student did not post a rating or leave any grateful comment. Not a “Thank you, this helped me finalize my language choices. I appreciate that you fit my paper around and into your evening’s engagements at such late notice. It was kind of you to accommodate my needs and accept my request.” Nada.
I can understand that the simplistic definitions and simple instructions I have pre-scripted for college essays—some students are writing their first college essay after years away from school—obviously seemed too simplistic for the task he had to complete. So, despite my being offended, his comment informed me that I must create a Doctoral and Masters Cheat Sheet of resources and examples in more sophisticated, graduate level language .
I am grateful for the tutoring income. And I am a person, offering a service to people who want to use my knowledge and experience. I’m willing to share and help you benefit from what I’ve learned. I won’t do your work for you, but I’m delighted to teach you how to do what I know how to do. You have to put your ideas about your content and research into your text; you must paint those ideas with your voice AND with English diction, sentence construction, syntax, and language conventions to create your masterpiece to put on display for your audience to read.
My purpose for doing this tutoring job is to let you USE what I’ve learned. I hope to mentor writers (even those at the doctoral level or published authors) and some student writers to become the very best writers they can be. My goal is to develop independent writers who know what they want to say and how to say it most effectively so that the reader clearly follows their train of thought, understands, and is moved by what the writer is saying. I hope to create independent writers who don’t need me anymore.
By the time my third WYZANT student came to me, I’d read the tutor forums and found that I should ASK for ratings and reviews prior to the next session so that I find out the student’s perspective on how this session met their needs. Not only because this helps me plan the next session with that student, but also because ratings and reviews are posted on my public profile for prospective clients to see. I asked my student to watch for WYZ’s email and rating/review form. A day later when I’d not been informed of a rating, I sent them a message, asking for a review. Later they told me Wyzant emailed them the rating form after I sent my email to them. They immediately rated 5* and gave a warm, satisfied review. I’m grateful. Since their review, other students have requested I tutor them through Wyzant.
I hope I can help every writer who sends me a request for tutoring or proofreading. I hope each one will grow in their knowledge of essay writing and in their skills to masterfully craft the English language. I hope I continue to learn what to say and how to say it so my students know their own strengths and are willing to learn new skills. I hope I become a more empathic tutor/mentor/guide and am able to discern just what each writer needs. That is my hope for 2024.
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