The ACE-WELL is a tutoring center and study space for students enrolled in any English course or INFO-100 course at Howard Community College. We provide free, walk-in tutoring services for HCC students. Our tutors are highly qualified instructors, many of whom are faculty members in the English department.
Tutoring is one-on-one, supplemental instruction that is in addition to your normal class hours. The tutor can help you with research, reading assignments, understanding directions, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and/or editing your work. You don't need to be failing a class to use tutoring; we are more than happy to help you with whatever you need. Tutoring does not mean we will do your work for you, but we will collaborate with you to accomplish your best work in a course. Think of us as writing or reading coaches!
Things to keep in mind before you come to a tutoring session:
Make sure to bring your materials: a draft of your writing (even if it's just an outline), the readings or materials that you are using for your assignment, and the prompt or rubric that your instructor has provided. If you don't have a printout of these things, you can bring a laptop or use a computer in the WELL to show your tutor.
A session is about half an hour, so you should figure out what you need the most help with. A tutor can't help you write a whole 6-page paper in that time, but we could help you with organizing that paper so you have a good starting point to continue working on your own. You should go and work independently on the improvements that you talked about with your tutor, and if you get stuck then you can come back for another session to talk things over.
We do not do the writing for you, we help you to gain the skills to do it yourself! The tutors have a "pencils-down" approach, which means that you are the one who will change your writing based on our suggestions. You are the one who will drive the session, so you should come prepared with the questions you want to ask!
You can use the ACE-WELL tutoring service more than once - if you find a day and time that works for you, you can come in every week to check in on your classwork for your English or INFO-100 course, or you can drop in a few days in a row if you need assistance on a major assignment. If you work really well with a specific tutor, you can come to see them on a regular basis. It is a good study habit to use the resources and support available to you whenever you need it!