The Composition and Literature Center 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 service. Our tutors are highly qualified instructors, many who are faculty members in the English department.
Tutoring is like a one-on-one, supplemental instruction. You get the benefit of having someone's 100% attention on you as you work on an assignment. Tutoring service is not an editing service. Tutors will not "correct" your essays for you. When you come to a tutoring session, you need to come ready to learn by working collaboratively with the tutor. The tutor will guide you, help you see what you need to work on, identify what your strengths are, and how you can meet the requirements of the assignment you're working on. The tutor can help you with reading assignments, understanding the assignment directions, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing, and revising. You don't have to be lost in a class or be failing a class to use tutoring. They can help you with research and documentation too. Think of the tutor as a writing coach or a reading coach.
Here are some guidelines about getting the most out of your tutoring session:
Bring with you the materials you're working on: a draft of your writing (whatever stage it is in), the relevant reading assignments, and the assignment prompt. If you don't have a printout of these things you can access the materials on your own laptop or on a computer in the CLC to show the tutor.
During the tutoring session, you will be asked to focus on the most pressing aspects of the assignment you need to work. In a 20-30 minute session, what can you dive into? The tutor cannot review in detail a 6-page paper with you in 20-30 minutes. But they can focus on the organization of a 6-page paper with you in 20-30 minutes.
During the tutoring session, you will be doing all the writing. The tutors have a "pencils-down" approach to tutoring. This means, making any changes to your writing or taking notes of any kind should be done by the student. This ensures that the student is involved in the session and that the session is driven by the student.
Each tutoring session should last no more than 30 minutes. One reason is that there may be other students who need to work with the tutor. Another reason is that after a 20-30 minute sessions, you should go and work on your writing and make improvements/progress based on the notes you made with the tutor. And if you want more help, then you can come back for another session.
Use the CLC tutoring service more than once - once you find the day/time that works for you, come every week. Check in with the tutor and work with them on whatever you're working on that week for your English course or INFO-100 course. If you find that you get along really well with a particular tutor, maybe come and see that tutor on a regular basis. This is about building good study habits and using all the resources and support system that are available to you.