If you’re thinking about hiring a private tutor to improve your writing, you’re taking an important step in improving your skills as an academic, professional, or creative writer. Private tutors come with a wide variety of experiences, backgrounds, and preferred techniques, and it’s important to find one that will be a good fit for your work, style, and personality. To help prepare you for your search, here are four questions to ask a private tutor that you’re considering hiring.

Here at Tapestry Writing Support, we specialize in tutoring writers at any stage of their writing journey! Book a free consultation, then read on for the questions you may want to ask!

1.    What are your credentials and experience?

This seems like an obvious question, and most tutors will put their credentials front and center when advertising their services. For example, I have over six years of experience as a peer and professional writing tutor, and six years as a supervisor of tutoring services. I have worked with adult and student learners on both academic and creative projects, and have led workshops on various topics related to writing.

There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to a tutor’s experience, but it’s good to know who they’ve worked with before, in what kinds of environments, and for how long. If they’ve worked in a college environment, it’s also useful to ask if they were a peer or professional tutor. Peer tutors are typically college students themselves, and that can lead to very valuable insight, since the student tutor will likely have firsthand, recent experience in the assignments their tutees have worked on. Professional tutors, on the other hand, likely come with more experience and may be able to conduct a more polished and efficient session. If you can find a tutor who has experience with both, you’ll be getting the best of both worlds!

Consider also, the tutor’s experience in other areas. What did they study in school, and what other jobs have they held? Management, teaching, and editing experience can especially be a boon to their resume. Degrees in fields related to communications, or subject areas that are related to the subject areas you need tutoring for are also helpful.

2.    Have you worked with writers in my grade before?

Clients seek tutoring for a variety of reasons, but the most common reason is to get help with a writing assignment. A good tutor can adapt to writing at any level, but you may feel more comfortable hiring someone who has taught or tutored at the level you’re currently at (or, if the tutoring will be for your child, their current grade or writing level). It’s not necessarily important that they’re knowledgeable in the exact subject area you’re writing about, but they should know the basics of what makes a strong essay at this stage.

Besides essays for classes, you may also be seeking tutoring for a standardized test essay, school application, or even a cover letter for a job. It’s a good idea to ask if they’re familiar with the expectations for the specific type of writing you’re trying to do, and to be transparent about how comfortable you are with writing in general, so they can meet you where you are no matter what you’re working on.

3.    When do you prefer to review papers?

There is no “right” answer to this question; it depends a lot on your personal preference, and some tutors may not have a preference. The important thing is that you’re able to share work in a way that works for you.

If the tutor will review papers in advance, that can save you a lot of time during the session, and allow you both to focus more on what needs to be improved during the session. But it requires a bit of extra commitment from both parties. It means that you have less time to work on your writing, because you may have to submit it to the tutor several days before your session, or longer. It also means the tutor will have to commit more time in advance to reviewing your paper, which could increase the price.

On the other hand, if you bring the writing to the session and have the tutor review it then, you’ll get a real-time reaction, but you may have to spend some of your session time waiting for the tutor to review it. You may not get through as much as you would have otherwise. However, not all tutors consider it necessary to sit and read a paper in order to tutor it. Many may employ other methods, such as having the student read their paper aloud and working on issues as they come up. It also might be the case that the paper is in the early stages, such as brainstorming or outlining, and therefore there wouldn’t be much for the tutor to review in advance anyway.

4.    Do you offer sessions synchronously or asynchronously?

Like the question above, there’s no one right answer here. It all depends on how YOU prefer to receive tutoring, and whether the tutor will work with that format.

Synchronous support means that you receive tutoring during a pre-arranged meeting, either in-person or virtually through a platform such as Zoom. Being open to virtual sessions will give you more flexibility in who you can hire and will certainly save you time and gas, but it’s also perfectly normal to prefer a face-to-face meeting. Synchronous sessions in general tend to be more fruitful, no matter where they’re conducted, because communication and feedback are instantaneous, making it easy for the student to ask questions and the tutor to answer them.

Asynchronous support usually involves the student submitting a paper for the tutor to respond to at a later time. This will usually involve comments and suggestions on the original document, and may also include a summary of the tutor’s overall thoughts. This method can save a lot of time for the student when it comes to getting initial feedback, but it isn’t always as easy to get answers to follow-up questions, and if there are a lot of them, you may not get them back in time to submit your assignment. Likewise, the tutor may have questions in order to provide the best support possible, so the student should be vigilant about checking their email or other primary method of communication so they can clarify points quickly.

Overall, asynchronous support may involve less comprehensive support than a synchronous one, but that doesn’t mean the student won’t get the help they need, and it can save you both time and money.

Bonus: Consider Personality Too!

Hiring a private tutor is an investment of time, money, and energy, and if you’re hiring one to address a specific writing assignment, it’s also something you might get just one shot at before the next assignment comes up. If all of the above questions are answered to your satisfaction, great! But consider also that this is someone who you’ll be working very closely with, potentially for weeks or months if you need additional support. Writing, even academic writing, can be very personal, and it’s important that you work with someone who you trust and who you feel will give your work a fair assessment and be honest about what needs improvement in a way that resonates with you. That’s why personality can be an important factor as well, and there’s not one right question to ask here, or even necessarily a question you need to ask at all.

Some tutors take a very straightforward or even a blunt approach to feedback, preferring to get straight to the point of what can be improved. Others are deliberate about making sure they focus on what’s working as much as what’s not. You’ll likely get a good idea from a consultation or preliminary conversation whether the tutor’s personality will be a good fit for your needs, but don’t be afraid to ask any questions about their tutoring style as well.

Hopefully, these four questions and one bonus consideration will help you on your journey to find the right tutor to support your writing. Know that when you book a consultation with Tapestry Writing Support, I will answer all of your questions honestly and strive to be a great partner and champion of your work. No matter who you end up working with, a good tutor is just one step, but an important one, on your journey to become a stronger writer and communicator.