Liz Mastrangelo
Writing Coach
TUTORING, CONSULTING, AND EDITING SERVICES
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Policies
My student experiences learning differences, and/or benefits from particular strategies when reading and writing. Will you accommodate their learning needs?
I strongly encourage all parents to share with me, with as much honesty as possible, the nature of their student's relationship with reading and writing, including any struggles that the student experiences. The more information that I possess about a student's learning style and writing process before we enter a coaching partnership, the more likely that the student and I will make efficient progress toward our goal. In all cases, I respect the student's pace while motivating the student toward high-quality fulfillment of their work, as well as toward feelings of pride and accomplishment.
How many sessions will my student need for college essay coaching?
The number of coaching sessions depends on multiple factors, including 1) whether your student and I start our coaching relationship with the brainstorming stage or a phase that is further along; 2) whether your student and I meet for 60- or 90-minute sessions; 3) the time it takes for your student and me to explore potential essay topics; and 4) how motivated your student is to fulfill prewriting and drafting exercises on their own in between sessions. On average, I work with a student for 5-8 live sessions and 1-3 remote editing sessions before indulging in the last step: trimming their essay for word count.
Occasionally, coaching can last for a dozen sessions or more. At any time, if you feel that your student and I must adjust the pace of our work to better fit your financial needs, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Why does the prewriting stage for the college essay take so long?
The prewriting stage is the stage where it happens! My philosophy is that, if a student's brainstorming and note-taking pages do not hold all possible content for their potential final essay, the student is depriving themselves of considering all creative and emotional pathways for their storytelling. A student may feel in the moment that a detail seems irrelevant or insignificant, but that detail may eventually serve as a gift to the narrative. Frequently, a student will find that they have filled a graphic organizer with so much rich, developed information, they can simply copy and paste this writing into a new document, shape it into paragraph form, and produce a rough draft on the spot. I strongly feel that prewriting is the most vital sort of college essay writing help that I can offer.
How can you help my student write a personal yet eloquent college essay?
My goal is to ask your student clarifying questions about their life experiences until they tell me a thorough, multi-layered story that is entirely their own. I want your student to texture their narrative with the specific notes of humor, vulnerability, and strength that define their individual voice, as well as with a timbre that accurately represents their age and life stage. When I edit your student's final draft to meet word count requirements, I may reduce longer phrases to singular verbs and nouns, remove words that feel redundant, or combine sentences in order to save space. However, I strive to maintain your student's vocabulary and expressive spirit during this process.
How can you, as the tutor, ensure that my student is respecting their English teacher's preferences for approaches to reading and writing?
My role as your student's tutor is to support and to enhance the classroom teacher's educational approaches as best I can. I want to avoid contradicting your student's teacher, and to save your student from confusion. If your student's teacher has not offered specific instruction on a topic -- such as thesis statement writing or quotation integration -- I will suggest that your student seek their teacher's recommendations. In the meantime, I will provide your student with the professional guidance that I have always provided my own students.
Once your student's teacher has returned a writing assignment that your student and I worked on together, your student and I can review the teacher's feedback to assess what approaches to adjust, if necessary, for the next assignment. Learning a teacher's priorities and understanding their instructional methods can be a work in progress.
What are your priorities, as my student's tutor, when you help my student to learn skills for their English course?
First, I want your student to believe in the value of their own ideas, even if they find the act of articulating those ideas to be challenging. Second, I want your student to work toward proficiency in expressing those ideas with emotion and conviction. Third, I want to assist your student in composing precise and grammatically-clean prose that will heighten the power of those ideas. My purpose is to equip your student with life-long communication skills, and to inspire them to think sensitively and critically about humanity through the mediums of reading and writing.
How will your tutoring services raise my student's English grade(s)?
Developing reading and writing skills, especially of an analytical nature, takes consistent effort, time, and often a considerable number of useful missteps along the way. My role is not to feed your student the "right" answers, but to lead them through an exploratory -- and revelatory! -- experience as they increase their critical thinking savvy and shape their academic and personal voices.
I know that anyone embarking on "an English tutor near me" search likely wants better grades, and those will almost certainly come in time. If your student comes to each of our tutoring sessions prepared, motivated, open-minded, and willing to independently continue our work once our session is over, then measurable progress is likely to occur. In addition, your student should feel free to seek my guidance and feedback on essay drafts in between our live meetings to maximize the benefits of our coaching relationship.
What happens if my student doesn't show up to a scheduled Zoom session?
The daily life of high-schoolers can be jam-packed with obligations and stresses, so I understand that once in a while, they will forget to attend, or will choose to avoid (again, I get it!), a scheduled Zoom meeting. After ten minutes, if your student has not joined the Zoom, I will attempt to reach out to them via email or text. Whether your student and I can start our meeting late depends on the flexibility of my schedule at the time. In most cases, your student and I will have to reschedule.
I will not charge for one missed session, as everyone deserves a mulligan. For each ensuing missed session, I must request a fee of $50 as compensation for the time and attention that I could have devoted to another client.
How does payment work?
Payments via Venmo are welcome, as are payments via cash or check.
Mail check payments to...
One Pocahontas Way
Lynnfield, MA 01940
Venmo:
@Elizabeth-Mastrangelo
I prefer to accept payment after a coaching or tutoring session, rather than ahead of time. This method allows for flexibility with the length and content of the session, even while the session is in progress. You may decide to initiate payment after each session, or wait for a payment request or invoice from me. I am also open to discussing alternate payment schedules that work for you!