EAL Tutoring Resources

Whenever you have a question or doubt about how to approach providing feedback (or how you approached providing feedback) come look through these resources. Even if you don't find the specific agenda item, there will certainly be value in looking through to see how you could approach it. (And any time you think we need something, just reach out to Katie Brown or the

English Learners Support SL!) Also, feel free to use this in the appointment to access resources. If you know that you struggle in a certain area or have an appointment that could have gone better, come back to these pages and continue the iterative and reflective learning process.

Model Tutoring

These examples are not the way to write a letter or conduct an appointment, but rather one way to approach the work. As you read through the examples and explore the ways in which the tutor approaches the feedback, revisit some of your own practices, and compare them. The goal is to use these as opportunities for you to reflect on and develop your own practices.

Model Face-to-Face Letter

Exigence

The writer scheduled a thirty-minute Face-to-Face Appointment to finish proofreading their paper on feminism and television. The writer had already started proofreading with another tutor in an earlier appointment, and at this point in the writing process, they wanted to focus specifically on the newly written conclusion.

Overview

This tutor incorporates each of the five key components of an effective appointment letter: Rapport, Exigence, Agenda, Methods, and Next Steps. While the tutor and writer likely discussed a range of topics during their session, the letter focuses on the two agreed-upon agenda items; this will allow the writer to freely access the concepts and details most relevant to their particular goals. An appointment letter like this one has the potential to reinforce the learning that took place in-session, giving the writer an opportunity to remember and reflect upon their specific goals. By describing the specific strategies implemented or suggested within the session, the tutor equips the writer with revision tools that might come in handy in future writing.

The letter

Writer,

It was nice working with you on your feminism and TV / Media paper. Even though we just proofread the last few paragraphs, I really enjoyed reading through your thoughts and ideas. Your writing was very critical and engaging! As you asked, we spent our time doing proofreading of your last section, and while your writing was very clearly communicating your message, we did isolate two patterns: sentence combination / separation, and pronoun usage.

Remember that only a period, semicolon, or comma +and/or/but/so can combine or separate two complete sentences. An easy way to tell if it's complete is to see if there is subject and a verb (a who doing something). Incorrectly doing this—i.e. using a comma instead of a period—may not always create an issue; after all mistakes happen! However, when you have run-ons or sentence fragments, it can become confusing as to who is doing what. In other words: your meaning may not be effectively communicated and/or your reader gets lost. Here’s that resource talking about the different punctuation marks we looked at.

With pronouns, it's important to make sure that your pronoun is clearly referring back to the noun you want it to. If you remember the one sentence we read and I thought your pronoun referenced one noun and you said another, that's a great example of how different readers can interpret pronouns differently. It’s easy to overlook because, in our mind, as the writer, we know what that pronoun is referring to. So as you read back through your work and encounter this / that / it / which / (and others), make sure that you can clearly point it back to the right noun before. Sometimes it’s ok to repeat the noun too! Here’s a resource that can help too.

Thank you for including me in your writing process,

Tutor

What's Working Well

This tutor acknowledges the writer’s original thoughts and ideas before commenting on the technical aspects of their language. Starting with your honest readerly reaction to the content helps to immediately place the focus on what is written, not how it is written.

Here the tutor does two things: 1) explains the grammatical concept and how it works, and 2) discusses why paying attention to this concept is important. This gives the writer the opportunity to reconnect with information that may have been shared during discussion, but in written form.

The tutor reiterates how they worked through the agenda item within the appointment, and they provide a specific suggestion with clear instructions for addressing the concern in future writing

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Provide links to any resources you used in the appointment and others they may use. Talking through how they can use the resource is also a great idea—especially if you didn't do so in the appointment.

Model Written Feedback Letter

Exigence

The writer scheduled an hour-long Written Feedback Appointment for a written analysis assignment. The prompt asked to define and apply job evaluations, and explain how factors related to culture and/or identity interact. The student submitted a partial draft, and they wanted feedback especially focused on grammar, punctuation, and formality of language.

Overview

The tutor does a good job of collaboratively setting the agenda, indicating why they had agenda items not requested by the writer. Furthermore, each of the agenda items is focused and specific, and the tutor effectively discusses the why of the feedback, making connections to culture. Overall this letter is focused and does an effective job of contextualizing and explaining the feedback.

The Letter

Hey Writer!

This is Tutor, and I read through your draft today. Thank you so much for sharing it with me! I found this subject really interesting, and you definitely informed me about things that I was not aware of before, so thank you for teaching me something today :)

You mentioned in your appointment form that you wanted me to focus on “any spelling, grammatical, syntax, punctuation errors, and the organization.” I focused on grammar in terms of the verbs and tenses that you are using, and then I thought at this point in the process, it may be the most helpful for you to consider the utilization of evidence as well as your thesis. I think focusing on these two things will really help you to create that organization and a clear argument as you continue to draft this essay.

1. Thesis: Not all essays need a thesis statement, but I think this is a place where you may benefit from a really clear and defined thesis statement. A thesis statement is essentially just a one-sentence description of what your main argument for the paper is. In this situation, one thing that I think could really be defined with this thesis statement is the answer to the question, “Am I Paid Fairly?” How can you use the answer to this question to clearly define everything that you are going to be discussing in the rest of the essay? A thesis statement not only helps you as a writer to keep focused on the important components of your draft, but it also serves as a roadmap for your reader. If they read and understand that thesis statement in the first paragraph, then they have a clear sense of what you will be arguing and they can then understand all of the information that you have placed within the essay in context of this thesis statement.

This might also help you accomplish a specific part of the prompt, as your professor strongly urges you to have a clear answer to the question, “Am I Paid Fairly?” A thesis statement could be the place that you clearly define your answer, and then you can use the rest of the essay to discuss why that is.

2. Evidence Throughout: One of the other things that your professor requests is the “demonstration of the application of at least 5 peer review articles along with the citations of these articles in a reference section.” The way that I interpreted this, it seemed like your professor may want you to clearly cite the sources within the text, to show that you are using at least 5 peer-reviewed articles within the text. I can see by your reference list at the end that you have really done a lot of research, which is awesome! You just might want to include some in-text citations throughout your source as well to clarify which information is from where. This will help your professor know where you are getting specific information.

To me, it looked like you might be using APA style citations. So here is the Purdue OWL’s guide to APA in-text citations. If you are not using APA citation, then I would search around Purdue OWL for the citation guide of the style that you are using. Then you’ll just want to check out the in-text citations to see each different style’s guides.

3. Tenses and Verbs: One of the things that I noticed is that there were a couple of different times where I noticed that you were using a different tense than the one that you might have been intending. I found this to be especially when you are using two verbs in a sentence, so the first verb would be wonderfully conjugated according to the subject and tense that you wanted, and its always those other verbs in the sentence that are a little harder to nail down exactly what tense they should be in. I would urge you to consider what time frame that second verb happens in in conjunction with the first verb in the sentence. I know this is a pretty vague explanation from me here, but I am going to try to be more specific in my marginal comments.

Once again, thank you so much for sending in your essay today! It was a joy to read.

Have a wonderful day!

Tutor

What's Working Well

Indicating what you've learned from the writer's content can help to push back on any language-based apprehensions. It shows you engaging with the ideas, not just language.

Indicate one specific grammatical point to focus on. This keeps the feedback learning driven. The tutor also collaboratively sets the agenda, explaining why the non-requested feedback is important.

A clear, defined thesis that appears early on is a Western writing convention. By indicating how and why the writing and reader would benefit from it in this context, the tutor avoids a 'this is how we do it' approach, which allows a more accessible learning moment.

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Giving the writer links and resources is great as it gives them concrete support in their next steps. It can also be helpful to explain how the writer can use that resource.

Model Written Feedback

Exigence

The writer scheduled an hour-long Written Feedback for feedback on a partial draft of their analysis (see below). The writer added the following note for feedback on: "mistakes I need to avoid when I write the rest of the paper. especially on grammar, punctuation and word formalization side, since English is my second language." The writer also included the following prompt:

Am I Paid Fairly? Written Analysis. This assignment offers each student to demonstrate mastery of the following learning objectives: (1) define job evaluation (salary surveys, salary structure models) and apply them to appropriate situations and (2) DePaul students will be able to explain how two or more of the factors of race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, age, gender, sexual orientation, or religion interact to shape oneself or others.

Overview

In asynchronous appointments, it can be difficult to navigate the collaborative aspect of setting the agenda. Here the tutor does a good job of acknowledging what the writer had asked for, but the tutor also indicates why they chose to also focus on evidence and thesis as two of the agenda items. The tutor also effectively explains the context of the feedback, indicating why certain things are expected in US academic culture and how the writer can work it into the writing. Also note how the tutor uses the writer's own text to point out effective instances of the agenda items, indicating those as models for revision. This is the full appointment from the letter example above.

Sample Written Feedback

model_wf.pdf

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US Academic Writing

Along with the obstacles that all writers face, EAL writers face additional challenges related to academic culture. Classroom dynamics and writing conventions can differ across academic cultures. Many of these strategies are more content-specific versions of general tutoring best practices (ex: don’t just issue a correction, provide full context and explanation for any suggestions you make), but can help explain US academic writing standards.

Remember also that it can be helpful to ask questions about a writer’s previous experience with academic writing, if it seems appropriate and relevant to the writer’s requests.

Responding to The Prompt

As tutors, we often work with texts that don't address the prompt or don't respond to the prompt in the expected way. For the international and EAL writers with whom we work, this can be caused by a number of reasons. However, much of our explanation and feedback may itself be grounded in the cause: knowledge of and familiarity with conventions.

How to approach responding to the prompt…

Not all assignments are common sense. Many times, they can be situated within specific academic or social-cultural contexts. EAL writers, especially international students who are unfamiliar with certain U.S. academic terms or concepts, often bring different expectations and assumptions about what good writing looks like or what a certain type of writing is meant to do.

In the agenda:

Don't just state that the response doesn't adhere to the prompt, indicate:

Why it doesn't

Why that target response is expected (contextualize it)

How the writer could more clearly respond

(Even point them to some resources for further help)

Encourage the writer to reach out to or meet with their instructor. Remember, too, that in many academic cultures it isn't common for a student to reach out to the instructor (in class or outside of class), so you can indicate how instructors welcome students' questions, and that they see it as engagement (not weakness or as a negative)

Sometimes a writer may be simply unfamiliar with the genre (Here is a great resource from The St. Martin's Handbook (6th edition) on analyzing genre features to help better understand how to write in a new genre)

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Effective example summary note: You indicated that this was a reflective essay responding to your recent service work for class; however, as I read through your paper, I noticed more of a summary than a reflection. A summary is essentially retelling what happened. However, a reflection is more focused on what you learned from the experience (you'll certainly have some of the that, but the majority should be focused on the connections or relevance or importance of the experience). In US academic writing, instructors often assign a reflection not to learn what you did (not to make sure you did the work), but rather, to see what you learned through the work. You could connect the experience to theories or ideas from class, showing how this experience helped you better understand ___ or how you saw ____ theory at work in the experience. The goal of the reflection should be to help you make sense of what you learned in the class, what you learned in the experience, and why that's valuable for you.

Text-specific feedback:

Use this feedback to elaborate on the summary note. If the writer is responding in the completely wrong direction, don't worry about the text-specific feedback. But, if it seems there's elements in the text that could work if reframed, then offer that text-specific feedback. However, don't spend too much time talking through why it's not working, but instead, offer suggestions for how the writer could reframe the text to better do what the prompt asks for.

Continue the conversation from the summary note / earlier discussion

Point to elements of the text that are not working, and explain why

Ask questions to get the writer thinking back to the prompt

If you notice moments where the writer is nearing what the prompt asks for, indicate that! Then explain what separates that from the other text

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Effective marginal comment: This paragraph has a lot of good information, but it reads more like a summary—you telling me what the article was about. Your prompt says to avoid summary, so instead of retelling me the information from the article, can you react to it with your thoughts about this information?

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Effective marginal comment: In this paragraph you're telling your reader what you did. That's certainly valuable for reflection, but the main focus of the work should be reflecting on what you did. So instead of restating what you saw, why not think about how it connects to the course outcomes / learning, or why you think it went this way, or what you would have done differently. How you felt about the experience and what it meant to you.

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Effective marginal comment: Here you're starting to move into that analytical writing. Instead of just saying what the author said, you're beginning to break it down and talk through how that affected the audience. Keep pushing further with that in this paragraph, asking how and why. Then use this as a model for getting more analytical in other paragraphs.

Thesis

Thesis statements are a very common agenda item because, well, they are a very important part of most US academic writing. However, they are not a common convention in many other academic cultures. The US academic culture is what is referred to as a low-context culture, meaning it values direct and explicit communication. On the contrary, many other academic cultures—China for example—are high-context cultures, meaning they value indirect, context-reliant communication. This translates into thesis statements: if your writer is from a high-context culture, they may not include a thesis because they expect the reader to infer the main point. There's no right or wrong way to write, but following the context's conventions is important. So, our task as tutors should be to help our writers understand the expectation, why it's the expectation, and how to work within the new conventions.

How to talk about thesis statements…

In the agenda:

Don't assume the knowledge. You don't need to go into an overly-long and in-depth explanation, but you do need to contextualize your feedback:

Start with why you chose a thesis statement: provide your experience as a reader, and why you felt the thesis needed work (again grounding it in your experience as a reader of the text)

Then contextualize the need for a thesis: why given this genre/exigence that thesis is expected, what function does the thesis play here, what will a stronger thesis help achieve

Finally offer your interpretation as a reader: what did you think the main point was and why? How could the writer work the thesis into the paper (and where and why)?

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Effective summary note: As I read through your paper, I didn't have a clear understanding of what you were arguing. It was clear that you were writing about _____, but why you were and how you were addressing _____ was not clear, so I didn't always know what to do with the information you provided. In other words, there wasn't a clear thesis statement. Thesis statements act as guides for the reader: they tell the reader what you're doing with your topic (often what you are arguing). They are a convention (an expectation) in US academic writing; your reader will expect that up-front, clear statement of your argument (when you leave the reader to infer your argument, you risk them getting lost or misinterpreting your point). Typically this will appear in the introduction of the paper as a way to set up what's to come. You seem to be focusing on ____, so you could work that into a thesis statement and place it at the end of paragraph __. That would help establish the argument and guide the writing and the reader through the paper. Once your thesis is established, you can revise each paragraph to more effectively, then address and respond to / support that thesis.

Text-specific feedback:

Especially given the cultural context, offer more direct rationale for your marginal comments. Don't let the fear of over-directive feedback keep you from being too minimalist. It is 100% ok to be direct with the information you provide (just avoid being direct with how they apply the information). So with a thesis, make it clear what you think or interpret and why you think ____ is needed.

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Ineffective marginal comment: "This seems to be your main point, but it's not clearly stated in the thesis"

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Ineffective marginal comment: "Is this your thesis statement? It's not clear"

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Effective marginal comment: "As I read through, this seems to be what your main point is. As I discussed in my summary note, making this clearly stated at the beginning of the essay will help establish that main point so that your reader clearly sees the connection between each of these paragraphs"

Resources

The Harvard College Writing Center website provides information on different steps for constructing a thesis statement. Likewise, it provides an explanation of what a thesis is and its importance. This also provides examples of what a thesis should and should not look like.

Application: This would be a great resource to add into an appointment letter after you've gone over your own explanation of what a thesis statement is. Likewise, you could use this during an appointment to provide examples of what a thesis statement should look like.

Integrating Sources

Integrating sources is an essential component in US academic writing because it demonstrates the research that a writer has done and their knowledge of the subject. Likewise, it is important to properly integrate them (cite them) into the writing to give credit to the researcher/writer’s work that is being used. Improper integration of sources could potentially lead to accusations of plagiarism. Plagiarism happens when any words, phrases, or ideas from a source are taken without crediting the source for the information. As tutors, it is our job to explain the possible outcomes of both not integrating any source material into their writing and not properly citing source material in their writing to our international students and EAL writers. Explain the various types of source integration (paraphrasing, direct quotes, etc.) they can choose from and how each can be helpful to strengthening their work.

How to Talk About Integrating Sources…

In the agenda:

Be specific and address how the issues with integrating sources affect the writing and how the issues could lead to plagiarism or weakness in their claims

Let the writer know why these issues with integrating sources are important in this text and for this exigence

Give an example from the text and talk through it and how they could approach revising

Then address how properly integrating sources will improve the writing

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Effective summary note: As I read through your paper, I noticed that there were claims made that weren't necessarily supported with integrated facts/sources. Whenever you're making a claim, it must be supported for it to be strong and meaningful within your paper. Likewise, when you integrate a source to back up your claim, it must be properly cited to give the researcher/author credit. We give this credit in order to avoid plagiarizing. One example of an unsupported claim that was made was when you said _____. If you choose a source that backs up this claim you can either paraphrase or directly cite it as a way to provide evidence to your claim.

Text-specific feedback:

Focus on the way they are using a source in the context of their writing rather than on the general knowledge of integrating sources.

Also, if they are not integrating sources, find places in their work where they could integrate a source and explain to them how and why they could.

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Ineffective marginal comment: You don't have any back ups to your claims here.

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Ineffective marginal comment: Is this an outside source? Cite it.

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Effective marginal comment: It looks like this may be an outside source that you're using here. That being said, since it's in APA format, you'll want to either include the author's last name in the phrase or include it in the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence(s). If you were to put the author's name in the phrase it would like look this: Smith (2014) says _____ (p. 90). If you were looking to put it all in the parenthetical it would look like this: (Smith, 2014, p. 90). You want to be sure to always format your in-text citations similar to one of these examples in order to avoid accidental plagiarizing."

Resources

The Harvard College Writing Program's page on using sources explains the importance of integrating sources as a tool for strengthening claims. Likewise, it explains the necessity of integrating sources as a way to avoid plagiarism, and it provides information on the various forms of source integration a writer has at their disposal.

Application: This may not be the best in-appointment resource when it comes to face-to-face appointments; however, it is very useful to add in appointment letters for all appointment types. This could be helpful in providing the various forms of source integration a writer can use without having to go through each and every one in marginal comments.

Another Harvard College Writing Program page provides important information on how to distinguish credible sources from non-credible ones. On this page, there are various links for questions a writer should be asking when evaluating a source and how to decide which ones to focus on.

Application: Again, this is a source that would be best used for an appointment letter. However, the links to various questions could be helpful to go through with the writer during an appointment so that they can begin researching for their paper.

Clarity

Clarity is a common agenda item that tutors may use to address a myriad of concerns, ranging from phrasing to logical conclusions. Because clarity can refer to so many things, it becomes incredibly important to use it with intentionality and be clear about how it relates to a writer's work and concerns. This page gives tutors a background on how to address concerns with clarity in their work with EAL writers.

Clarity: Organization and Cohesion

Cohesion refers to how sentences flow together within a paragraph. In order to achieve this, the sentences must follow a logical organization that shows how one sentence can lead to the next. Therefore, cohesion can be thought of as individual puzzle pieces and how they fit together. At the paragraph level, this is how each sentence relates to one another. Likewise, at the level of the entire paper, this is seen in how paragraphs relate to one another. Addressing cohesion issues at any level of writing is important in US academic writing because it affects the tone of the work as well as it can effect the reader's ability to make logical meaning of the work if the sentences or paragraphs do not have any logical connection. Therefore, our work as tutors should focus on explaining the importance of having a cohesive paper (it provides a logical way for the reader to understand the relationship between each sentence/paragraph in the paper).

How to talk about Organization and Cohesion…

In the agenda:

Focus on what the writer could do to make what they've already written cohesive and explain to them why their current work may not be cohesive.

Start by explaining why you've chosen this an agenda item by providing what your experience as the reader has been and how it impacted your ability to make meaning of their writing

Provide context for why it's important to have cohesion in their writing. Explain that cohesion can affect the ability of the reader to decipher logical meaning between paragraphs or sentences as well as tone

Finally, provide possible techniques they could use to achieve cohesion with their current work (see external resources for various techniques)

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Effective summary note: As I read through your paper, I had a hard time making sense of the organization of the paragraphs. Specifically, the paragraphs didn't seem to be related to one another. For example, the first paragraph's main idea is about ___ and the second is about ___ and, as a reader, I wasn't sure how the two topics were connected. Therefore, I didn't notice cohesion between them. Cohesion refers to the way that sentences and paragraphs logically relate to one another. This concept is a convention in US academic writing that is important because it allows the reader to decipher a logical meaning/relationship between your paragraphs or sentences that aids in the overall tone of the paper and the overall takeaways from it. To address this, I'd recommend utilizing topic sentences at the start of each paragraph that state what the paragraph is about. Likewise, I'd recommend adding transition sentences at the end of the each paragraph that explain that you are moving into a new, related topic.

Text-specific feedback:

Make sure to be specific on what connections you are or are not seeing in their work. Then, scaffold them by providing a few options for how to address cohesion issues in your marginal comments. After a few comments of providing examples/suggestions on how to address cohesion issues, refer them to your previous comments and ideas each time you address a moment where they need to make sentences/paragraphs more cohesive.

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Ineffective marginal comment: It seems like you're trying to show a relationship but your sentences don't add up.

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Ineffective marginal comment: Are you trying to say ___? I don't understand why this is here.

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Effective marginal comment: As I read through this section, I felt that you had a lot of clear and concrete ideas; however, I wasn't sure how they were related to one another. I think this is because your paragraphs are missing transition sentences. Transition sentences show the way that paragraphs are related. This could be an easy way to show the relationships between each of your ideas, which will overall strengthen the clarity of your paper.

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Effective marginal comment: This paragraph doesn't have a clear connection or relationship to the previous one. How do you see them connecting? You could use your response to that question to help phrase a transition (building on the previous paragraph, offering a new way of looking at the concept, or maybe showing some disagreement).

Resources

The University of Melbourne has an Improving Cohesion page outlining various ways to address issues of cohesion. It also explains the importance of cohesion in developing an argument both at the sentence level and the paragraph level.

Application: This could be a really good in-appointment resource as it contains a list of words and phrases to use to help create cohesion. Likewise, it explains the different options a writer has for maintaining and creating cohesion.

This Rockowitz Writing Center of Hunter College webpage offers a definition of cohesion and rationale for why cohesion is important in developing an argument. Similar to the previous website, it offers various options for addressing issues of cohesion.

Application: This could be useful during appointments because it provides words and phrases that could be helpful for fixing issues of cohesion. It could also be added to an appointment letter or within marginal comments for more specifics on addressing cohesion.

Clarity: Development and Coherence

Coherence refers to the way that sentences and paragraphs logically relate to one another. Think of this as the large picture you see after you put together a jigsaw puzzle. Keep in mind that there are various ways to obtain coherence and to approach development; however, we should consider the context from which the writer is coming from. Specifically, in some countries, their logical way of developing their argument may not be the same as ours. Practices in their home country may require them to start a paragraph ambiguously and work up to the topic of it by the last sentence. It's important that we provide cultural context when explaining how to develop coherent paragraphs and papers in US academic writing.

How to talk about development and coherence…

In the agenda:

Don't go into a long explanation of how to organize paragraphs and sentences. Rather, contextualize how their organization is functioning and provide cultural context of why they may need to reformat it.

Start by explaining why you chose to focus on coherence. Likewise, let them know whether or not you're focusing on coherence at the paragraph or sentence level

Explain the need for sentences and paragraphs to be coherent: why a specific type of paragraph or sentence development is expected given their genre/exigence and what that specific type of coherence will do to help strengthen their paper

Offer your interpretation as a reader: what were the main points of each paragraph? What were their relationships/connections from your understanding?

Finally, provide examples and models that will help them understand the feedback you are providing them

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Effective summary note: As I read through your paper, I wasn't entirely sure how your paragraphs connected to one another. It was clear that in paragraph one you were writing about ____, in paragraph two you were writing about ____, and in paragraph three you were writing about ___, but I had a hard time following how each of those topics were connected to one another. Therefore, the paper wasn't entirely coherent, because there wasn't a clear picture painted using all of those ideas. In US academic writing, it's important to begin each paragraph with a topic sentence and to end each paragraph with a mini conclusion (transition sentence). The topic paragraph states, explicitly, the connection between the previous paragraph and the new topic. On the other hand, the transition sentence provides a mini conclusion that states the relevancy of the paragraph to the entire paper as well as it lets the reader know that the paragraph will be transitioning to a new idea that is also connected in the next paragraph.

In the text-specific feedback:

While it's good to be a little minimalist in this approach, it's also important to give some directive feedback as to your interpretation of how meaning is being made. Be sure to explain to them why you think making certain changes to their current structure is important based on your interpretation within your marginal comments.

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Ineffective marginal comment: This paragraph is about ___ but doesn't relate to your paragraph about ___.

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Ineffective marginal comment: Are these ideas related? It's not entirely clear.

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Effective marginal comment: As I read through this first paragraph, it seems that your main idea is ___. However, this isn't stated until the final sentence of the paragraph. Likewise, there isn't a transition sentence that summarizes the importance of this point in regards to your thesis and lets the reader know that you will be discussing a similar idea in the following paragraph. As mentioned in my letter, it's important that there is always a topic sentence that explains exactly what the main point is as well as lets the reader know that this new main point is similar to the previous paragraph's. Likewise, I also mentioned in my letter the need for transition sentences. So, I'd recommend moving this sentence that contains your main point up to the beginning of the paragraph and add a transition sentence that summarizes the idea's relevance to your entire paper.

Resources

Southeastern Writing Center's page on coherence offers a definition for coherence and explains ways to determine errors in coherence in a piece of writing. Likewise, it provides various ways to achieve coherence.

Application: This page would be great to add in an appointment letter to provide options for the writer to use to achieve coherence. Likewise, it could be useful in appointments to see what options the writer has in order to achieve coherence.

This video from Study.com provides a definition of coherence and ways to identify issues in coherence. It also provides examples of coherent sentences/paragraphs and breaks down the various options writers have for achieving coherence along with examples showing these options.

Application: Since this is a video, this would be best to add into an appointment letter. Specifically, add this into an appointment letter as a way to provide options for the writer to achieve coherence without having to write out an explanation of each option they have and what they mean.

Clarity: Sentence Level

English is a SVO (subject - verb - object) language, which means that typically a sentence starts with a subject and is followed by a verb (what the subject does) and an object (what that verb is done to). However, most of academic writing is more complex than that—we use many modifiers and structures to add information. When that complexity and modifiers/phrases are added in, the sentence itself can lack clarity. It's easy for us to see this, but commenting on it can be tricky.

How to Talk About Sentence Level Clarity…

In the agenda:

Be specific and address how the issues with clarity affect the writing

Let the writer know why these issues with clarity are important in this text and for this exigence

Give an example from the text and talk through it and how they could approach revising

Then address how revising for this clarity will improve the writing

Text-specific comments:

When the meaning is lost:

Address the communicative act: what was meant? You can indicate what you interpreted it to mean, where you lost the meaning, what lead you to be confused, etc

If you think they meant ___, don't assume that is what was meant. Instead, pose it as your interpretation as a reader, then explaining why you interpreted that meaning

Use your comments to also model effective phrasing or explanation

Don't assume one meaning and offer that as the revision

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Ineffective marginal comment: This sentence doesn't make sense to me. Read it to yourself.

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Effective marginal comment: In this part of the sentence, I became confused, and the rest of the sentence was not clear. From my read of it, it seems like you are saying ______. If that's not your message, isolate the subject and verb of the sentence and build up from there.

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Ineffective marginal comment: Say it like this: ______

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Effective marginal comment: You could say _____, which would put the emphasis on _____. Or, you could say _____, which would then make this sentence about ____.

Both of the good examples above present direct information: what you the reader is interpreting. However, they are not directive in how the writer should revise. Option one effectively indicates what the current structure says, and option two offers options for how the writer could rephrase for meaning.

Grammar-based clarity:

When you don't understand a sentence—or you know that something needs to be edited—but you don't know what that specifically is or how to talk about it:

Focus not only on the part of speech/type of phrase but also the function that the word/phrase plays in the sentence

Break down the sentence with/for the writer: identify the subject and verb, and talk through how the other phrases/modifiers caused confusion

In short, you don't need to immediately know the technical terminology—and if you don't, don't fake it!—all you need to do is talk about the meaning and how it could be more clearly communicated

For more on grammar-based clarity issues, see the section on Grammar and Language.

Resources

Purdue OWL's page on sentence clarity mainly covers the various strategies for improving the clarity of sentences in a paper. It provides explanations and examples of utilizing various techniques to address sentence-level clarity.

Application: Since this page focuses on ways to address the issues rather than an explanation of when the issues of sentence-level clarity occur, it would be best used during an appointment to provide on-the-spot options. Likewise, it could be useful in an appointment letter so that the writer also has access to the options and their explanations.

The Part of Speech site is broken down into two categories: individual words, and the 8 kinds of words. The pages for individual words list the different kinds of word group the word falls in (if can either be a conjunction or a noun), and provides examples to highlight the different ways the word works. For pages that explain a group of words (noun, verb, etc.), the page provides many different kinds of examples that highlight the different ways the word group is used.

Application: This source is helpful during appointments and in appointment letters to remind the reader of different grammatical concepts that could be affecting their sentence-level clarity.

The DePaul ENG 407 course resource on Parts of the English Sentence explains the composition of the English sentence in terms of phrases. Likewise, it provides an explanation of each element of the sentence with examples and how each of the elements function in a sentence.

Application: This could be used both during an appointment and in an appointment letter. It is helpful when the sentence-level clarity is due to grammatical errors. This could be helpful in finding out what the grammatical errors is and how to address it.

The DePaul ENG 407 course resource on the Eight Traditional Parts of Speech provides a breakdown of each part of speech along with examples. It also provides tips for identifying the different parts of speech within a sentence.

Application: This would be best to review while trying to identify grammatical issues that are causing sentence-level clarity during a written feedback appointment. It could help the tutor understand where the errors are occurring. Likewise, if the writer seems to be exhibiting issues with this grammatical concept, it could always be added into an appointment letter.

Grammar and Language

The organization and inclusion of resources in this grammar guide is based on Bitchener and Ferris’s (2012) list of common points of concern for EAL writers.

General Tips for Discussing Grammar

Offer more explanation and modeling in earlier marginal comments (first 1-2 instances). Consider color coding, or underlining, to point out later recurrences of the same issue

Use the summary letter to explain why a grammar rule is important for the writer’s work. Provide information and examples and then point the writer to external resources

If you’re not totally sure what grammar rule you’re explaining, don't spend too much time worrying about terminology. Instead, talk about the language and its affect on the reader

If you do know what grammar rule you’re explaining, reference the graphic below to find specific terminology:

Sentence Structure

The basic structure of the English language is subject - verb - object. So the basic structure of an English sentence will be a noun / noun phrase followed by a verb (doing word), and usually another noun / noun phrase. Below is a great list of the basic sentence patterns (taken from the St. Martin's Handbook).

A Note on Punctuation

When we create more complex sentences, adding in phrases (group of words that adds extra meaning to a word or clause) and extra clauses (a group of words with both a subject and a verb) there needs to be punctuation.

The Punctuation Guide https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/

Phrases

Phrases are a bit harder to talk about and aren't something that we often think of in our day-to-day writing. Essentially, phrases are a group of words that do not contain a subject that is completing an action. Likewise, phrases can be added to sentences to create complex sentences. There are many different types of phrases as well. These are important to address in writing as issues with phrasal use can cause larger clarity issues at the sentence level. As tutors, it's our job to explain the effect of the phrasal use in the writer's text on our ability to understand its meaning.

How to talk about phrases…

In the agenda:

It's important to point out how their particular phrases are functioning in their own work and what meaning they are or aren't conveying (without assuming your perceived meaning is the one true meaning). Likewise, you want to be sure to point out specific patterns in phrase use that you've noticed (missing phrases, misplaced phrases, etc.).

Start by addressing what your understanding of their text is based on their phrase use. Likewise, let them know what impact their phrase use had on you as a reader

Be sure to pull a specific example of the pattern you've noticed. Explain how the phrase was functioning for you as a reader, or explain how the lack of a phrase was functioning for you as a reader

Finally, provide solutions/ideas for how to address the specific example you've chosen and explain how that can be applied throughout their paper

Text-specific feedback:

Don't assume that they do not know how phrases function or what the rules for using phrases are. Instead, focus on how their specific phrase use is affecting their paper and provide scaffolding through various examples and ideas.

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Ineffective marginal comment: I don't understand why this phrase is being used here.

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Ineffective marginal comment: This phrase cannot be used here. Put it at the beginning of the sentence.

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Effective marginal comment: As I read through, I noticed that some of your noun phrases were being used in spaces that a verb phrase typically occupies. As stated in my summary note, a noun phrase always contains at least one noun. Likewise, if there is a verb, it's usually an infinitive following the noun phrase itself. I'd recommend breaking down this sentence into its individual parts and identifying what each word and phrase is functioning as before making any changes to this. This should help you move the noun phrase into the correct part of the sentence.

Resources

This Vappingo webpage provides a definition for what a phrase is. Likewise, it breaks down the properties of a phrase and the various types of phrases there are. It also includes a cheat sheet that includes punctuation rules, type of phrase, and when to use it.

Application: This resource is best suited for appointment letters both in face-to-face appointments and in written feedback appointments. It has a breakdown of the various types of phrases and explanations of what they are and what they consist of. Therefore, using them as a way to provide further explanation for a writer would be helpful.

Writing Explained's website provides context for English writing, specifically. Likewise, this specific page on phrases provides a breakdown of what makes up a phrase and contains further links to other grammar rules that may need to be understood in order to identify phrasal errors.

Application: This could be used in a face-to-face appointment based on the phrasal examples it lists. Likewise, this would be useful in an appointment letter as a way for the writer to understand phrase-use and the other grammar components that make up phrases.

Chomp Chomp's page on phrases provides a way for a reader or writer to identify a phrase. It also lists and explains the various phrase types and how they function. Similar to other resources, it provides links to other concepts that may need to be understood to fully understand phrases.

Application: This resource could be used during a face-to-face appointment to provide explanations for how to identify a phrase and phrase errors. Likewise, its examples could be used to help a writer understand how to properly format specific types of phrases. And, as always, this could be used in an appointment letter since it contains a detailed breakdown of the various types of phrases.

Clauses

While clauses aren't the most common agenda item, they can play a large part in sentence structure as they are the components that create a sentence. Clause errors are normally seen as sentence fragments and misplaced punctuation, which can cause meaning to be lost or skewed. There are a few different types of clauses; however, our focus should be on explaining the types of clause errors that are occurring in the text we are reading, and what effect they are having on our ability to read the text.

How to talk about clauses…

In the agenda:

This does not need to be a long lesson on the various clause types and how and when to use each of them. Instead, focus on the specific clause errors you're noticing in their particular work and contextualize what effect the errors had on your ability to read the work:

Start by explaining the specific type of clause error you're noticing (sentence fragment, misplaced punctuation, etc.)

Explain why those errors matter (what effect they had on your ability to read and understand the text)

Finally, offer a few different options for them to adjust the issue throughout the paper using an example and possibly directing them toward a resource

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Effective summary note: As I read through your paper, I noticed that there were incomplete sentences here and there. These sentences were incomplete because they were dependent clauses, which means they contained a subject and a verb but did not express a complete thought. For example, at one point you state, "Because cats eat," which does not express a complete thought because it doesn't cover what happens to cats because they eat. To address this and other dependent clauses that are standing alone, consider combining them with a main/independent clause. So, something like, "Because cats eat, they are considered living organisms," would work because you've taken your dependent clause (Because cats eat) and combined it with an independent one (they are considered living organisms).

Text-specific feedback:

Because clauses are a finer detail of sentence structure issues, make sure to explain the specific type of clause issue at each instance and how it's impacting the meaning in their particular text.

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Ineffective marginal comment: This is an incomplete sentence.

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Ineffective marginal comment: Your comma should go before 'and'.

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Effective marginal comment: As I read through, I had a hard time following some of your sentences because they were not expressing a complete thought, which left me a little confused on what your meaning here was. As stated in my summary note, try to attach an independent/main clause to this incomplete sentence to make it complete and to clarify what the sentence means.

Resources

This Chomp Chomp page provides a breakdown of the different types of clauses and how to recognize them. It provides rules for utilizing these clauses and examples of how they look. Within this page are links to further specifics such as coordinating conjunction use, subordinating conjunction use, formatting relative clauses, etc.

Application: This can be very useful during appointments and in appointment letters. It provides an explanation for how to correctly use these various clauses, which can help the writer decipher how to address clause issues. Likewise, it is helpful or the tutor because it provides definitions and breakdowns that they can use in their own explanations.

Sentence Boundaries & Variation

Sentence boundaries refer to the conventions used for both separating and combining sentences. The boundaries themselves are the punctuation used to help combine or separate sentences (commas, semicolons, periods, etc.). Sentence boundaries can be used as an agenda item if you notice issues with run-on sentences (both comma splices and fused sentences) and fragments. It's important that the writer understands what the most basic components of a sentence are, and how the punctuation they are using does or does not work to combine the sentences they have tried to combine or separate. As tutors, our job is to point out how their current sentence boundaries (or lack of) are affecting the work.

How to talk about sentence boundaries…

In the agenda:

Focus on the way the writer is already using punctuation and sentence combining or separating in the specific work you're providing feedback on.

Start by explaining why you've chosen this agenda item by providing what your experience as the reader has been and how their use of sentence boundaries impacted your reading of the work

Provide context for why it's important to identify sentence boundaries. Likewise, if they've identified boundaries but are using incorrect punctuation, explain how the various punctuation elements function/are functioning in their writing

Finally, provide examples of how to use sentence boundary punctuation or how to identify sentence boundaries themselves

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Effective summary note: As I read through your paper, I had a hard time following some of your sentences because they were so long. I noticed that there was an issue with sentence boundaries. Specifically, sentences were fused together when they were meant to be separated by punctuation. This is called a fused sentence run-on and consists of two or more independent clauses being combined without punctuation. For example, in the middle of the fifth page of your paper in the second paragraph, there is a sentence that is four and a half lines long. When I read that particular sentence to myself, I felt like I was running out of breath at times. Likewise, when a sentence is that long it is hard to follow its meaning. One way to address this is to separate the independent clauses with a period, or you could restructure the sentence to create an independent clause and a subordinate clause.

Text-specific feedback:

Since sentence boundary issues can occur in various ways, be sure to identify the exact sentence boundary issue you're noticing in their text (sentence fragments, comma splices, fused sentences, etc.). Then, be sure to model the various options they have for addressing the issue throughout your comments.

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Ineffective marginal comment: This sentence has too many commas in places that aren't correct.

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Ineffective marginal comment: Try using commas to fix this run-on.

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Effective marginal comment: As I read through, I had a hard time following your sentences because they were so long and were expressing so many ideas at once. This is due to multiple sentences being fused together without any punctuation separating the various clauses. I mentioned this in my summary note, but try using commas before your coordinating conjunctions to separate the independent clauses from one another. Or, you could completely separate this long sentence into 3 separate ones by adding periods after each complete thought.

Resources

The Franklin & Marshall College writing center's page on sentence boundaries explains the importance of establishing sentence boundaries and the common mistakes of breaking those boundaries. Further, it details the different types of sentence boundary mistakes that occur and how to address them.

Application: This can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous appointments. Likewise, it is a great page to add into an appointment letter to provide further explanation of the type of issue you're seeing (fragment, comma splice, etc.).

This University of New Hampshire Connors Writing Center handout on sentence boundaries explains how sentence boundary issues can be confusing for a reader. Likewise, the handout provides a breakdown of the various sentence patterns and common errors that occur regarding sentence boundaries.

Application: This would be best for an appointment letter; however, it could also be useful during a face-to-face appointment if you're looking for a way to explain sentence patterns as this handout contains a breakdown of them. It also explains the various sentence boundary errors and provides techniques for addressing them.

Verbs

As one of the core parts of a sentence, verbs are important for conveying meaning. A missing verb, wrong tense or form of a verb, or wrong conjugation of a verb can create confusion in meaning. Subject-verb disagreement may not be the biggest issue, no doubt we know what "She go to the store" means, but depending on the genre and context or the complexity of the content, these seemingly simple errors can create confusion.

How to talk about verbs

Focus on the function of verbs and the role they play in communicating meaning. I.e. don't just address subject-verb agreement because you know it and can identify it. Contextualize it and its importance for your writer

As with any grammar point try to be as specific as you can. Is it verb tense? Missing verbs? There will be times when you can't isolate one specific type of verb issue, and it is ok to talk about the writer's verbs as a whole

You don't need to over explain the rules or how verbs are used. Instead, point your reader to resources on them, focusing on the effect the verb issues had on you as a reader

In the agenda:

Use your experience as a reader: As I read through your paper, I noticed errors with verbs. This affected my read in that it _____

Explain the why: When you don't have a clear action of the sentence, it's not clear what the subject does

Talk through an example from the text, contextualizing it in your previous explanation of how it works (see second example below)

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Effective summary note: I noticed a pattern with verb usage in this response. You had some missing verbs or too many verbs in some sentences. Remember that every sentence needs a clear subject (the who) and a clear verb (what the who does). When you add complexity to your writing, adding clauses and phrases, it can be hard to keep that straight. One great practice is to go back to those longer, more complex sentences, and see if you can isolate the clear subject (the noun / noun phrase) and verb (what the subject does). Then, you can look to the additional clauses and phrases and see how those modify / work with the subject and verb.

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Effective summary note: I highlighted (and made a few comments) on errors in use of the past perfect verb tense when the simple past tense was more appropriate. Past perfect is used to indicate a relationship between one past event and another: Before my bike race I had trained for three months. My training is in reference to another event in the past, so I used the past perfect. I continued to highlight verb tense issues with past perfect and simple past in blue. I also made a comment on page 31 of this document where you’re using the past perfect correctly. You are talking about something that had happened before Zhu arrived. That might help to solidify that difference.

In Text-specific feedback:

Offer more guidance and explanation early on. Use this time to contextualize your summary explanation within their text itself. Then, as the feedback continues, move from explanation to identifying the error and pushing for self-directed editing and revising from the writer.

Be direct and specific with what you see, giving the writer clear and direct information. Focus again on the linguistic function and effect on the read of the sentence

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Ineffective marginal comment: This is the wrong tense. You should use studied.

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Effective marginal comment: “had studied” is the past perfect, which is used to indicate an action that happened in the past before another action. But here you are saying that he studied since he was five years old. (I.e. you're not indicating that he had studied five years before he did ___.) That means you’ll use the simple past: Zhu Xi studied

If there are different options for revising, offer them. Don't just provide one fix

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Ineffective marginal comment: Your subject and verb don't agree. Change the verb so that it is singular like your subject.

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Effective marginal comment: Here your subject (writer) is singular and your verb (study) is plural. You could revise this to say "writers study" or "writer studies"; think about what the subject is and make sure then that your verb is in the same plurality.

Knowing the types of verbs:

There are different verb tenses, and there are different types of verbs. Knowing what specific kind of verb you're talking about can help, i.e. knowing the difference between a linking verb and an auxiliary verb. This list will help for times when you know something is missing, but you don't quite know why / how to explain it.

Action: expresses a physical or mental action (walk, talk, feel, believe). It's something you do

Linking: connects the subject to additional information about that subject (subject compliment). No action is shown; rather, it's used to link parts of the sentence (be, feel, seem)

Auxiliary (helping): change the tense, voice, or mood of another verb (be, do, have, can, may, was, will)

Transitive: transfers action from one noun to another; i.e. an action verb that must have an object (I want the job; She took the last cookie)

Intransitive: does not transfer any action; i.e. an action verb without an object (The scissors broke; The song rocked)

Resources

This Part of Speech page gives a list of the different types of verbs that link to additional information about them. Within the different pages are details, examples, and an explanation of how to identify the type of verb in a sentence.

Application: This could be useful in-appointment due to the examples it provides and the contextualization of when and how to use the specific type of verb, which could help a tutor explain the use to a writer. Likewise, it could be useful in an appointment letter as a resource for various types of verb options the writer has.

Word Form

Issues in word form occur when a writer selects the right word, but the form of the word is incorrect. For example, a writer may use the adjective form of the word when in that position of the sentence, it should be the noun form. What makes this even more confusing is that in English, not all words can go into all forms (noun, verb, adjective, adverb). Not only that, but some words have multiple ways to express one form: the bored student, the boring class (both bored and boring are adjectives).

How to talk about word form

As with any grammar item, focus on the communication of meaning. With word form especially, it is important to talk about the word's placement in the sentence as it relates to the meaning.

In the Agenda:

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Effective summary note: In English, the same word can take many forms, sometimes without changing its structure. So think about the function of the word: is it acting as a noun (a thing) or an adjective (modifying a noun). That can help determine what form of the word to use. One trick is to look at the words that come before / after the word you’re unsure about. If the preceding word is a verb or the following word is a noun, chances are you need the adjective form. Here’s a really great link for explanations and uses for each of the word forms: And if you want more information about different parts of speech (which words can have forms in many of them, check out this parts of speech reference).

In Text-specific feedback:

When commenting on language in the text, do the following:

Focus on the structure and meaning of the sentence as a whole. Instead of focusing on the one word, focus on its place in the whole

Talk about the word's relationship to the other words in the sentence

Offer multiple options; don't assume what the writer meant. Options will allow the writer to better understand the linguistic function

Talk through common word endings (George Mason University Writing Center has a great table of these)

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Ineffective marginal comment: This should be the verb, differ.

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Effective marginal comment: Different is an adjective, but here you have it acting as a verb. You could revise it to be the verb form, differ, or you could add a verb that will be followed by the adjective form: …help the bank be different…

Resources

The George Mason University Writing Center's page, Choosing the Correct Word Form, provides a contextualization of the use of root words in the English language. It then provides a chart with parts of speech, how they function, and their common suffixes. Likewise, it details various ways to address issues in word form.

Application: This could be used both in-appointment and in an appointment letter due to the easy-to-use chart and the breakdown of how to address issues of word form. It could also be used when working on a written feedback if a tutor needs extra help providing an explanation of the word form.

Part of Speech is broken down into two categories: individual words, and the 8 kinds of words. The pages for individual words list the different kinds of word group the word falls in (if can either be a conjunction or noun), and provides examples to highlight the different ways the word works. For pages that explain a group of words (noun, verb, etc.), the page provides many different kinds of examples that highlight the different ways the word group is used.

Application: This resource could be useful while working on a written feedback since it is helpful in re-learning grammar concepts that are useful and necessary in tutoring. The pages are also useful resources to share with writers who struggle with certain word forms and need a further explanation of how a certain word functions in a sentence.

Word Phrase provides tools for checking the frequency in which a word is used in the English language as well as it provides a tool for checking a writer's work to see how each word in the sentence is functioning. The tool breaks down each word providing definitions and parts of speech of the word.

Application: This could be a great resource to add in an appointment letter for "next-steps" as a tool for breaking down their sentences to assure that the words they are using are occupying the appropriate sentence slot (a noun-form of a word where a noun should be, etc.).

Pronouns

There are many uses of pronouns in US academic English writing. All pronouns can be substitutes for a noun. However, the pronoun itself changes based on the noun it's referencing. It's important to explain to our international and EAL writers that pronouns are an essential way to maintain flow both at the sentence level and at the level of the entire work. Likewise, issues with pronoun use can make it unclear to the reader who or what is being referred to (i.e. using them rather than that when referring back to an object). It is important that we are specific in what pronoun issues they are exhibiting and that we explain how it affected our ability to understand the work.

How to talk about pronouns…

In the agenda:

There are many pronoun forms and uses (referential, possessive, etc.) and it's important to identify what specific pronoun usage issue the writer demonstrates in their text. Likewise, be sure to contextualize what effect the pronoun usage had on your ability to make meaning from their text:

Start by identifying the specific pronoun issue they're demonstrating

Explain why the issue matters (how did the incorrect pronoun usage effect the meaning of the sentence or the paragraph?)

Provide some direction on how to address the issue by explaining the specific pronoun rule. Use an example from their text and explain why there is an issue and provide multiple options for how to fix the issue

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Effective summary note: As I read through your paper, I noticed issues with demonstrative pronoun usage. For example, at one point you write, "Can you fill out this forms tomorrow." This refers to something that is singular and nearby. Given the context of this sentence, it sounds like there are multiple forms and that they are not nearby. Therefore, the word "this" should be "those" because it shows plurality and that it is far-off.

In Text-specific feedback:

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Ineffective marginal comment: The wrong pronoun is being used here. It should be ___.

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Effective marginal comment: I noticed that the pronoun 'this' is being used here, which refers to something that is single and near. Since the context of your sentence implies that the item is plural and far away, you'll want to use the pronoun 'those'."

Resources

Busy Teacher explains the importance of pronoun use. Likewise, it contextualizes the importance of pronoun use, and it details the various types of pronouns and how to talk about them with a writer.

Application: This source would be great to review while working on a written feedback as it provides ways to talk about the information. Likewise, it has additional links within the page just in case you need to explore other concepts to understand the pronoun description.

This Grammar Book page on pronouns lists and describes the different types of pronouns and how they function in a sentence. For each description there is an example of two of how to use them.

Application: This would be great to use both in an appointment and in an appointment letter as it provides examples and easy-to-use descriptions of how to use a specific type of pronoun, when to use it, and options for using it.

Ask Betty's webpage on pronoun use provides a definition of what a pronoun is. Likewise, it explains that there are many types and describes each of them. It also gives a list of pronoun issues that often occur and how to address them.

Application: This could be useful in a face-to-face appointment as a way to show examples of different pronoun options the writer has. Likewise, it could be good to use when working on a written feedback to help identify pronoun errors and to help describe them in the appointment letter.

External Resources

Part of Speech

Application: This source is helpful in re-learning grammar concepts that are useful and necessary in tutoring. The pages are also useful resources to share with writers who struggle with grammar concepts.

Dave's ESL Cafe

Dave's ESL Cafe is a free website that offers students and teachers of English resources for building lesson plans and understanding grammar concepts with explanations and examples.

Application: This can be used in appointments in which a writer is interested in working on improving grammar concepts, as well as to provide tutors with ideas for text-based or concept-based discussion in Conversation Partner appointments.

Frankfurt International School ESL Guide

International School Tutors offers a collection of resources created by both native and non-native English speaking peoples to help English. The site also offers resources for parents, and teachers, as well as more specialized help for grammar and vocabulary building. The site also explains what academic English writing is.

Application: This is a good reference to consider when exploring how certain grammar issues confuse non-native English speakers. This can be a source tutors pull up and use during session since the grammar are explained clearly.

MacMillan Dictionary

MacMillan Dictionary is a dictionary and thesaurus website that focuses on

learning English. In addition to the dictionary and thesaurus, there are articles, quizzes, and tips for learning English.

Application: The thesaurus is incredibly helpful, and can be used in instances in which a writer is not sure which word most closely matches their intended meaning. It provides several examples so the reader can understand the word used in context. It can be used in appointments in which the writer is concerned about word choice.

Randall's Cyber ESL Listening Lab

The ESL-Lab offers "articles" that tests reading and listening skills. Each article has a talking, listening, and reading component that writers can use to practice these skills. The site also offers grammar help as well as quizzes that help build up vocabulary skills. Everything on the site is broken down using four level settings: easy, medium, difficult, and very difficult, so writers can pick the level that best suits their abilities.

Application: It’s a good starting point for conversation partners who want to practice their English comprehension.

EZ Slang

EZ Slang offers different kinds of topics with a focus on the causal/slang words

used to talk about those subjects. There is an audio transcription to each activity with a transcription that students can read and listen to. Each section also has a pretty extensive vocab list with sample sentences that students can read to better understand the slang used in the audio transcription.

Application: This is a very useful source to rely on when it comes to helping EAL with slang/casual English words for everyday use and conversation. While the examples are a little exaggerated, they’re framed in a relatively easy way to understand and explain. The tutor can easily build off of the materials presented during the session as well.

Education First

Education First is broken down into three broad categories: grammar, usage, and test. Each of the three categories has additional subcategories that address more specific ideas related to the three broad categories. One of the more interesting parts of this site is the free English practice test.

Application: Tutors can use this site as both a way for them to relearn grammar concepts, and to share as a resource with writers who come in and struggle with writing concepts. The site also has a section for idioms and tongue twisters, which could be fun to use in conversation partner appointments.