Nathaniel: White Plains tutor

Certified Tutor

Throughout my academic and professional life, writing and reading critically have not only been my strong suit, but my passion. As a tutor, I'm committed to awakening and strengthening that same passion in my students through an emphasis on creative expression and a fun, but rigorous, approach to essay writing. Often the hardest thing for a young writer is forming a unique point of view on a prescribed prompt or topic, especially one that may seem less than relevant to their own life. My goal is to do just that: rouse their natural enthusiasm for a subject and help them support it with evidence that's laid out in a compelling, causal structure. Focusing on causal transitions between paragraphs is a skill rarely taught in secondary education, but often expected at the college level. I learned this the hard way. But my years of writing-intensive tutorial classes at Williams College, combined with my professional experience as a theater director and script editor, have provided me with a range of strategies to help students see their writing as a performance of their thinking.

As a history tutor, my approach is similar. It's hard to memorize facts and dates; even harder if you feel personally unconnected to them. Students struggling to memorize people and events in a vacuum need more. I focus on helping my students maintain an active connection to history, boosting and intensifying information retention. I'll help them find unique ways to relate to the past, as well as the note-taking and diagramming methods that work best for them. My students will gain a strong sense of the world in which they live, how it came to be, and how to remember it all when faced with a test or essay.