Writing Tutoring Services

The Division of Graduate Education offers free tutoring services for graduate writers. The program helps graduate students improve the overall quality of their writing by working closely with a professional writing tutor. The tutor can offer help, suggestions, and advice on all writing projects, from dissertations and theses to term papers and resumes.

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Types of Documents to Bring to the Tutor

  • Theses/dissertations (at all stages of the writing process, from outlines to final drafts)
  • Project proposals
  • Abstracts
  • Term papers or class writing assignments
  • Lab write-ups
  • Response papers
  • Resumes and CVs
  • Letters or memos
  • Bibliographies (MLA, APA, Chicago, or other styles)
  • Other

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Services Offered

The Graduate Writing Tutor is available to work with graduate students through all stages of the writing process: generating ideas, improving logic and cohesion, and organizing topics and ideas.  Even if you need a quick question answered or just want to talk about your project, the tutor can help.

Services range from a quick read-through to in-depth commenting on a draft. Read through the following descriptions to see how the tutor can work for you.

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Graduate writing tutors are:

  • Sounding boards. Feel free to bounce ideas for a project off of your tutor. Tutors can provide feedback, suggest sources, and help you choose a productive direction for your project.
  • Educated readers. While tutors will not be experts in the subject you are writing about, they will do their best to ensure your arguments and theses are as strong as they can be before you turn in the document.
  • Expert writers at your disposal. The readers have masters degrees in English.
  • A FREE SERVICE

Tutors are not:

  • Editors. Ultimately, all editorial decisions about your document are yours to make. Based on the text of the document, the tutor may make recommendations on content or wording, but the job of finishing and polishing the document is still yours.
  • Proofreaders. The job of spotting all the typos and small mistakes is a job for the student author, not the tutor. Tutors will mark repeated errors or patterns of mistakes and bring them to your attention, but they will not correct your document.
  • Ghostwriters. The tutors will not write your document for you.

If you are looking for an editor-for-hire, you might consider contacting Fine Print Editing.  Here is their contact information:

Katie Thomas
www.fineprintediting.com
406.581.4543
katie@fineprintediting.com

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English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) Students

If you are not a native speaker of English and are having a hard time writing in English for your graduate classes, help is available. The tutor will look at any document you bring in and help you polish it. They will also attempt to answer any questions you have about writing in English.  Additionally, there is an English as a Foreign Language specific tutor available to assist you.  You can contact Tiffany, the EFL tutor, here: bliisesl@yahoo.com.

Group Projects

Tutors will meet with members of a group working on a single document or project. E-mail the tutor to make arrangements beforehand.

Presentations or House calls

The tutor can make presentations on specific topics to work groups, student groups or departments upon request. The tutor will discuss any topic of your choosing or can present on a number of common topics.

Presentations should be scheduled at least two weeks in advance. The time needed to schedule and arrange presentations may be longer in the summer.  If you are interested in scheduling a presentation, e-mail the tutor to arrange a consultation.

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Scheduling an Appointment

Please email msu.grad.tutor@gmail.com to make an appointment with the tutor.

Hours

Make an appointment by emailing msu.grad.tutor@gmail.com.

You should plan to provide the tutor with a copy of your project in advance, so please budget for this time.  Send emailed documents attached as .doc or .docx.

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What to Bring to an Appointment

This will depend on where you are in the writing process at the time of your appointment.

You should generally bring any documents associated with the writing project, especially any written requirements or related handouts your instructors have given you. Also bring any notes or outlines you think could be helpful.

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E-mail Consultations

If you can’t make it into the office or need help during a holiday break, tutoring is also available via e-mail.

Longer documents may take longer to read. If you are concerned about deadlines, please consult with the tutor ahead of time.

Note: Drafts should be e-mailed as a .doc or .docx file.

Questions?

Do you have a question not answered here? Do you have a project that doesn’t quite fit in to the ones mentioned on this web site? Don’t hesitate to email or to schedule an appointment with the tutor to talk things through. Arrangements can be made to handle most writing situations.

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