Samantha: Pinellas Park tutor

Certified Tutor

In Anne Fadiman's introduction of Marina Keegan's posthumous collection, The Opposite of Loneliness, Fadiman remembers Keegan, a young English major taking Fadiman's course, announcing: "I'm going to be a writer. Like, a real one. With my life." This eagerness to pursue knowledge of writing and reading--not casually, not in the meantime, but with my life--is what I most have to offer my students seeking tutorship in the subjects of reading and writing.

I have three post-secondary degrees in English (BA, MA, and MFA), and am currently pursuing my PhD in English. While my academic focus has primarily been on creative writing, I have also extensively studied the subjects of composition, literature, editing, and more. I have taken or taught courses in many facets of literature, including medieval, Victorian, romanticism, modernism, and postmodernism. I have studied the works of most British and American writers that typically make up a school's curriculum "canon" as well as World literature by other writers. My favorite is science fiction.

I have nearly ten years' experiencing tutoring, and five as an instructor of writing. In that time, I have worked with children of all ages--from pre-K through adulthood--on all aspects of reading development. I have taught speed reading and study skills to high school students. Most of my experience comes with working with students at the college level, on the complete of composition and literature essays: how to brainstorm, create a thesis, outline, draft, and revise. I am an editor as well as a writer and teacher, so I have a solid understanding of the writing process and am able to meet my students, of any age, at any stage of their writing and reading.

As an undergraduate at Miami University, I had a graduate workshop where the instructor asked us to bring in an object that best described what writing means to us. I didn't have a good answer then (I think I chose a Russian nesting doll, said something about "layers"); now, I'd choose a telescope, because I consider writing to be constructions of curiosity, attempts to look at something that, without a magnifying aid, cannot be viewed with the naked eye. I strive to teach my students to see writing in a similar manner: as a journey of discovery or an exploration into inquiry. Writing is not about find "an answer"--it is a process built on questions and options.

As a teacher and tutor of literature and composition, I encourage my students to ask those questions and consider those options. Through this process of writing, students find their own voices, passions, and interests, and learn to express their opinions in ways that are clear, clean, and effective.

Looking forward to working together soon!