eTutoring Appointment Instructions
To have a productive e-tutoring session, it is important to give your tutor as much information as
possible about your communication goals and assignment.
Be as specific as possible about your communication goals: What do you want to get out of your
session? What specific issues do you want your tutor to address or respond to? We are not asking
you diagnose your own writing; rather, this is a chance for you to begin your conversation with us.
Keep in mind that the GCC is not an editing service: our philosophy is that clear, organized and
rhetorically effective arguments and ideas matter more to a reader than sentence level errors.
Although we can be a resource for improving your grammar, our fundamental objective is to first
help make your ideas clear, organized and rhetorically effective.
Explain your assignment: Your tutor will be able to give you informed and relevant feedback if
they understand your assignment, grading criteria and audience expectations.
Please note that if you don’t give the tutor enough information about your communication goals and
assignment, their response may be significantly delayed.
Tutee’s Initial Agenda
“Improve writing”
Tutor Response
This statement is pretty
broad. Are you worried
about content? If so, which
sections/parts/paragraphs
did you have trouble
writing? Or, are you
gesturing towards style?
“Grammar”
What do you mean by
grammar? Are you
concerned with rules of the
English language, syntax,
concision, word choice, all of
these things, or something
else? Have you had
particular problems with
grammar in the past?
“Polish the draft”
What does this mean? Does
this mean that your draft is
at a late stage and you are
focused on more surface
issues related to clarity and
concision?
Revised Tutee Agenda
“I would like to focus on
making sure my argument is
logically constructed,
specifically in the body
paragraphs. I’m not sure if
my textual evidence provides
convincing support for my
main argument.”
“I have visited the GCC
several times to work on my
research proposal and, since
it is due tomorrow, I would
like to focus on sentence
level clarity. In the past, I
have had trouble with
sentence fragments, run on
sentences, word choice, and
comma usage.”
“I am not exactly sure what
the biggest problems with
my draft are. I am over the
word limit so I need to work
on concision, and I know my
wording may be confusing at
points, but I would be open
to other feedback as well.”