To begin with, writing is a skill that affects almost all academic studies. The obvious class where writing has its most impact is in English. However, writing will affect your student’s success in most of their classes—including the all-important STEM classes. Nowadays, advanced science and history classes both require a vast knowledge in a variety of fields of writing. Ensure your student does not fall behind by considering the benefits of private writing tutoring.
Growing up, my writing skills were disappointing. As a voracious reader, I enjoyed creating and sharing stories. Yet, I had trouble writing in good prose for the essay tests in elementary school. Instead of encouraging or helping me improve my writing, my fifth grade teacher told me that I wrote like a third grader and shut down any lingering desire to write. Needless to say, she was not the very best teacher. In hindsight, getting a B+ in fifth grade English was not the end of the world but to ten-year-old me, it felt like the biggest failure. Because of my internalized “mediocrity” in writing, I would spend the next two years hating writing and believing that I could only properly communicate verbally and not in the written word.
Okay, So Why the Sob Story?
Good question, concerned parents! While hiring a private writing tutor for a child who is failing their English class is an obvious decision, it seems unnecessary to hire one for a child who is passing. Feeling like writing prose and poems for English class is an impossible task is a common plight among students. Although you may believe that your child is doing perfectly fine in their English class, they may not be getting the support they need from their teacher to find writing an enjoyable or at least, a worthwhile skill to have. Moreover, their dislike for writing could negatively impact their success in other classes that are relevant to your child’s interests.
Also read: 7 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Private Tutor For Your Child
Do not let your child believe that they are not cut out for writing. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider the benefits of private writing tutoring.
1. Improvement Regardless of Skill Level
Refine your child’s existing writing skills and new ones!
We’ve discussed this earlier but it is an incredibly important factor to consider. Private writing tutoring may not seem like a necessity after a specific skill level threshold. This is incorrect. The best writers are those who constantly and consistently work to improve themselves. Unlike other subjects, writing is both the easiest and hardest skill to improve. A small change in sentence variety can result in more cohesive essays. At the same time, learning an entirely new style of writing can be daunting and nuanced.
Your child may be amazing at writing coherent, thoughtful analyses of the books they are reading in their AP English Literature and Composition class. Can they convey that level of inspection in their personal narratives? Can they write a strong, professional email or cover letter? These are both skills they need—whether it is the personal essays and short answers on college applications or the perfect introduction to a successful job interview. Every child has areas that need improvement but those areas vary from person to person.
2. Customizable Curriculum
Perhaps your child has an interest in comics. They could learn essay writing along side comic writing through private writing tutoring!
Depending upon skill level and writing goals, your child can improve their writing in a manner that suits their needs. Private writing tutoring is unique in its broadness and specificity in skills. An art student with an interest in comics can learn essay writing and cartoon writing in unison. A young entrepreneur can learn the art of proposal writing and poetry. This is a virtue of the universality of writing as a skill. The same vital concepts apply to different styles of writing.
Private writing tutors come from different disciplines of writing. Since most of these tutors have a thorough understanding of what it takes to succeed in a high school English class, you can select a tutor who has experience in specific lanes of writing. Not only will you be guaranteeing your child’s improvement in their English class (as well as other subjects!), you will also be giving your child the opportunity to explore an avenue that is relevant to their interests and bound to be helpful in the future.
3. Utilizes Relational Learning
Private writing tutoring employs relational learning, making writing less of a task and more of a treat!
One of the reasons I discovered my love for writing was an older peer mentor. As a student, asking teachers for help in areas that involve more than one conversation can be intimidating. We do not want to appear slow-witted or confused when others seem to have clarity. My writing peer mentor and I bounced ideas off of each other, wrote suggestions and praises as comments on Google Docs, and sent each other interesting prompts that came our way. We had equal footing. Neither of us started writing and discussing with an active motivation to improve. Rather, we wrote for the sake of sharing stories and ideas that were floating in our heads. Our mutual improvement in writing was an afterthought.
Private writing tutoring is not that much different from this situation. One of the benefits of private writing tutoring is its employment of relational learning. Relational learning is an educational construct where tutors teach students in a manner where both parties learn from each other by sharing ideas and create a learning/teaching environment that places them on equal footing. As many of our English teachers have said, there is no one right answer in English. Private writing tutoring means teaching your student to find a correct answer where their voice shines through. Consequently, there will not be the stress of getting a paper marked in red ink or any intimidation between the tutor and the student. The path to improvement will be an easy afterthought!
4. Positive Impact on All Their Academics
Whether your child wants to be a financial specialist or a researcher, the critical thinking skills they gain from writing will be important.
As we discussed earlier, nowadays, writing is an essential skill to succeed in almost every school subject. It is becoming increasingly important in college regardless of major and in the aptitude tests that help you join college in the first place. An unsurprising benefit of private writing tutoring is the student developing stronger critical thinking skills. All types of writing requires the ability to think clearly or critically. When writing, it is especially important to think of one’s audience and then to develop one’s argument or perspective into logical pieces of evidence and analysis that result in a strong conclusion.
The direct relationship between great writing and strong critical thinking skills is undeniable. By hiring a private writing tutor for your child, you will be enhancing both these skills. There is no question that you will also see an impact on your child’s aptitude in other subjects as well.
5. Leads to Confident Communication
Private writing tutoring can help your child communicate confidently in their future workplace.
In our society, the most successful beings are those with amazing personal and professional skills. Above all, the most important factor to success is the ability to communicate coherently and with confidence. Regardless of your child’s STEM genius or creative prowess, if your child cannot properly communicate their ideas in a manner where others can also visualize their idea, their idea is, unfortunately, worth very little.
Story-telling and narrative writing are the cornerstones of effective and assured communication. Private writing tutoring with a focus on these disciplines of writing can truly make an impact on your child’s future. These benefits of private writing tutoring could change your child’s life.
Find an amazing writing tutor that suits your child’s needs here.