Free Writing Tutor

The concept is relatively simple:

You e-mail me a piece of writing (send to mamaluxe at gmail dot com) and if I choose it I will post it with some helpful (hopefully) suggestions for improving your work. I will e-mail you when and if I am able to mentor you on your paper. I will not share your e-mail with anyone else. If your parents prefer to send the message from that e-mail address, that is fine as well.

You can send creative writing, papers, college admissions essays, poetry, whatever you like.

At this time I cannot review entire novellas or novels for free. Because I am very busy, I am concentrating on helping grade school, high school, and occasionally college students. This is for occasional help, only. If you want a full-time private tutor outside of the free services available through school district or university, please hire one locally or online. If you are looking to hire an editor to review a work you are trying to publish, let me know.


How does this work?

• E-mail me a piece of your writing--probably a rough draft, but an outline, brainstorming, or a more polished draft is fine, too!
• Make sure to include a first name or nickname and the subject and grade level. My responses to a paper will be different based on whether you are writing a paper about Einstein for your eighth grade history class or your college physics class.
  
• Include two or three aspects of your work you are happy about and two or three aspects on which you would like me to concentrate. This can include pretty much anything (transitions, argument, grammar, a particular section that is not flowing the way you would like...just don't expect me to be your spell checker). If you have already received comments from a teacher on your last assignment, mine this response for ideas.
• Include as much of the actual assignment as you can. If you have an electronic copy or can scan it, great. If not, at least give me the prompt and the major requirements. Make sure to include your due date. I am a push over for a student who needs help.
• I will post your paper with some comments and questions for you to consider. This is not a line by line edit or a rewrite. I am just making some suggestions--you will need to do your own work.
• Be nice. Remember, I am voluntarily offering free help to people who may need it. I am under no obligation to review your paper.
  

Who made you Queen of Writing?

Well, I don't know that I would go that far...but here is why you might want to take advantage of this FREE offer:

• I graduated from Yale and received my M.Ed. from Harvard.
• I taught for five years as a history and art history teacher. For three of those years I was a writing mentor at one of Newsweek's top ranked high schools.
• I have been a tutor for very many years, specializing in history, standardized test preparation, and writing.
  
• I am a professional freelance writer (I left teaching to stay at home with my baby). Several of the country's top textbook and educational consulting companies and several popular magazines for students have paid me very well to write.

Besides, it is free...what do you have to lose? Worse case scenario you find my input useless and you just ignore it.


Okay, so what do you get out of it?

I am not sure, yet. I put up some affiliate links and we'll see if those are useful or not. I may eventually sell advertisements and/or put up a donation button but right now I am mainly just missing helping students with their writing. I thought this would be a fun way to volunteer from home and use my experience. If it stays small and I help a few others, that's great. If it crashes and burns, I just stop blogging. If it becomes huge, fantastic.


That's so nice...What can I do for you?

Submit your writing. Spread the word. If you have a website, link to this blog. Tell your friends. Tell your teachers.

And please, please, please, let me know whether or not my comments were helpful and the end result of your assignment. Don't leave me hangin'.