Welcome, Catie! This is our blog, not just for formal tutoring, but for as long as you wish to continue using it. It is my hope that, through the assignments you work on here, your language and writing skills will progress and improve in a way that feels natural and shows boldly in your work.

Starting Monday, January 13, I would like you to complete two daily assignments. I don't believe you will find them difficult or inconvenient, but they should do a great deal to help you develop. I will also assign you an essay after I have had a week or so to get to know your writing style better, and part of our weekly video chat will be revising and editing that essay until you have produced a suitably improved final draft, however long that may take. Once you have completed a final draft, we will start on a new essay. Expect to receive your first essay assignment around January 20.

Daily Assignments

I. Freewriting
The first assignment is timed daily freewriting. I would like you to freewrite a blog post for eight minutes each day. The purpose of freewriting is simply to get into the habit of putting ideas into writing. It also helps you train yourself to get into writing mode quickly and overcome writer's block. I will comment on your freewrites only to suggest ways you could develop the ideas you produce in further writing. Some of our long-term essay topics may evolve from these freewrites.

During a freewrite session, you should not worry about spelling, grammar, structure, etc. This seems like the opposite of developing your writing skill, but remember that all of those things can be fixed once you have ideas on paper. What cannot be fixed is not having ideas on paper. It is important to try to choose a time when you will not be distracted and can write for eight minutes straight. If you go over the time limit that is okay, but don't stop before eight minutes. If you aren't sure what to write about, click the link below and follow the instructions and it will give you a random prompt. I love this prompt generator and have used it countless times! Writing Prompt Generator

II. Vocabulary
The second daily assignment will be a vocabulary exercise. It comes from a book I have had great success using called 1100 Words You Need to Know. All of the words in these exercises are SAT vocabulary, and learning them has been proven to improve test scores in reading comprehension, verbal reasoning, and writing. I will link these assignments from Google Drive to the blog, and you will complete them on your own. At the end of each set of vocabulary, I will quiz you on the vocab using a form linked here in the blog. Click here to view the first vocabulary exercise should you care to get familiar with its format.

Rest up this weekend, and I look forward to working with you and getting to know you better!

Amanda