Alison

Certified Tutor

I earned my BA from Columbia University, where I majored in English, and I received an MFA in
creative writing and a PhD in English literature from the City University of New York. I have a
wealth of experience with teaching and tutoring the language arts: I taught English at a middle
school in Los Angeles and a high school in France, and I have taught college level literature and
writing classes for 15 years at schools that include Duke, Georgetown, and the University of
Massachusetts. If you'd like to see honest reviews of my teaching, look me up at
RateMyProfessor.com. I am offering a free 30 minute initial session to see if we are a good match for each other.

I also worked as a tutor at Duke's Writing and Language Center for two years, and I even
worked as a tutor trainer for one semester, using my expertise to train graduate students to be
writing tutors. Additionally, for the past two years I have been tutoring a middle school student
in creative and academic writing. She recently told me that her language arts teacher praised
the improvement in her writing, and last summer she entered a creative writing contest run by
Cricket Magazine with a story that I helped her write, and she won!

I loved reading and writing since I was a child, because of the way they connect us to each
other, help us process the world around us, and help us understand ourselves better. My goal
in tutoring is to share that excitement and enthusiasm with my students in a fun yet structured
environment. When tutoring reading, I enjoy helping students understand and appreciate texts,
and when tutoring writing, I love helping students find the best possible way of expressing their
ideas. I am skilled at guiding students through all steps of the writing process, from
brainstorming ideas to editing final drafts, and I can help with organization, clarity, grammar,
research, voice, citations, and all other aspects of writing.