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pls remind me of name of online "as you wish" writing tutor service


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There's one I've seen discussed plenty on these forums.  I just spent over an hour scouring my notes, and can't find the name.  You just pay by the week (or month?), and you are assigned one specific tutor to work with.  The tutor will help the child on assignments you have chosen, or will provide more structure and ideas if you prefer.  There's no large commitment, and no classes.  The web site offers a generous sample of how it works, showing a series of email correspondence between a tutor and a student on an essay the student is writing--I think maybe it has to do with dogs, but I'm not certain.  Everything is done on email; there is no synchronous skype-type component.  Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

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Yes, Matryoshka, that's it.  Thanks!!  And thanks for the review.

 

The only caveat I would give is to be very specific about what you want in a tutor - do you want them to give the assignments or do you want to give the assignments and have them work with the kids on editing and polishing?  What level/klnd of writing - narrative, personal or persuasive essay, research paper with citations?  What part of the writing process do you want the tutor to focus on? The good thing about this program is it can be whatever you want - but the flip side is that if you don't tell them what you want, you might not end up with a good match.

 

Also, someone here once gave them a bad review because their kid submitted something one day, the tutor responded (always within 24 hours), and then the kid never submitted anything for the next couple of weeks, and the parent was mad that the tutor didn't nag the kid or ask what happened to them.  The way the system is set up, they couldn't do that if they wanted to.  There is one email a day from the student, and another back from the tutor, like ping pong.  If they've batted your student the ball, it's his turn.  If your kid doesn't submit something one day, you miss the day.  If the kid is stuck, then he should write "I'm stuck" (well, hopefully with a bit more detail as to why), and that will put the ball back on the other side, and the tutor can respond with help to keep things moving.  Their role is to work on writing, not nag - that's still your job. ;)

 

They do also have one extra email exchange per day that can go between the tutor and the parent if you want to talk to them about anything, and you can email the office at any time.  Also, if you know in advance that you will be out of town or otherwise unable to submit something for a couple of days or more, you can tell them (the office) and they will suspend the account and add time to the end - but you have to tell them in advance, not after the fact.

 

The other great thing about this program is that you can share it among multiple kids, as long as only one kid submits something each day.  I shared our account mostly between two kids, and they took turns submitting work every other day.  Other people share by having one kid work on a paper for a week or two, then switch.  I always put my third kid on the account as well, and sometimes they'd submit something from what they were working on too.

 

If you want two or more kids submitting things daily, though, you'd need two accounts.  I actually found every other day a nice pace.

 

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My problem with them was that feedback was very general. "Improve a paragraph," "reorganize," isn't going to help. I admit though that maybe this service is better for older kids who can take such general instruction.

Our feedback was more specific. This is why you have to be so clear about what kind of instruction or feedback you're looking for. If you're specific up front and the tutor doesn't give you the kind of feedback you requested, you can ask for a different one.

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On the more expensive side, Brave Writer does one on one writing tutoring of just about anything you want. It wasn't set up for lots of small volleys back and forth, but lots of feedback and instruction and then student go work on it and turn it in for more feedback. The instruction and feedback was similar to what's given in their classes.

I was told to email Julie Bogart directly and she set me up with someone. I asked a bunch of questions and explained what I was looking for and the tutor countered with how they saw it working before I paid. Make sure you know what you are getting before you pay or you might not be happy. (I was very happy as it was exactly what I needed).

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