ACADEMIC COACHING AND TUTORING BULLETIN - FALL 2024

• Weekly and Walk-in Tutoring
• Lehman Tutoring Center Writing Workshops
• Weekly Conversation Groups
• How to Register for a Workshop
• Lehman Tutoring Center Writing Values
• Links We Like

Weekly and Walk-in Tutoring

At the Lehman Tutoring Center, writing tutors typically work face-to-face and online with undergraduate and graduate students on writing, reading, and research for any course. In-person appointments take place in the Old Gym, Room 205 and online appointments, on the Blackboard Collaborate platform. We recommend you take advantage of weekly appointments since this allows you to work with the same tutor at the same time each week, and to work more efficiently since you get to know one another.

Common questions about our weekly appointments:

How can I schedule a weekly appointment?

Complete our appointment request form. You will receive an email once an appointment has been scheduled.

How can I schedule a one-time appointment?

Click here to come into our waiting room during our business hours.

What if I don’t have anything to work on every week?

Even if you are taking one course at a time - and most of you are taking 3-5!—you can always work on something, whether it’s planning, research, reading, etc. Think ahead! One of the great benefits of working with a tutor on a weekly basis is that it can help you approach your course work more proactively.

What if I don’t feel like my tutor and I work well together?

We believe in the power of positive relationships. If, after a couple of meetings, you don’t feel you and the tutor are a good fit, please let us know and we will try to arrange a weekly appointment with another tutor.

What if I can’t come every week?

Because tutors are in high-demand for weekly appointments, we can only allow students one cancellation per semester. If you know you can’t commit to a weekly appointment, walk-in meetings may be a better option for you. You might also try working with an online tutor (details below).

Some students can’t commit to a weekly appointment, and that is okay, too. We welcome you for drop-in appointments as well. Even you are coming as a drop-in, think about what you want out of your session and try to set realistic goals. For example, if you have a five-page paper, you might want to read it over with the tutor and create an outline of it to see if it is organized effectively based on your intentions as well as your professor’s assignment guidelines. Here is a comic the writing tutors created to help you think about walk-in sessions:

Lehman Tutoring Center Writing Workshops

We offer free workshops in a variety of areas including writing and academic skills. For the complete current schedule of ISSP workshops, see below.

Building an Argument - Sign up (select the workshops you wish to attend)

Harnessing the Power of Topic Sentences. Learn to use topic sentences to construct cohesive paragraphs and guide readers through your argument.

• Wednesday, October 2, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Developing Thesis Statements. In this workshop, we’ll examine model thesis statements and consider common thesis pitfalls; then you’ll work on drafting a thesis statement of your own.

• Wednesday, October 30, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Evidence, Analysis & Claims. Every effective argument weaves together these three elements. In this workshop, you’ll analyze evidence of different kinds (data, statistics, quotes), then develop a claim based on your analysis.

• Wednesday, November 4, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Quoting, Paraphrasing & Summarizing

This workshop reviews how to incorporate souces into your paper by summarizing, paraphrasing, and providing direct quotations. We'll address how careful use of these mthods helps us to avoid plagiarism. Registration required. Click desired date to sign up. Location: online. Sign up (select the workshops you wish to attend)

• Thursday, September 19, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm 
• Monday, September 30, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm 
• Wednesday, October 16, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm 

Citation Basics

Overview of citation basics, including when and how to cite sources in your paper. APA focus. Registration required. Click desired date to sign up. Location: online. Sign up (select the workshops you wish to attend)

• Tuesday, September 24, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm 
• Monday, October 21, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm 
• Wednesday, November 13, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm 

Effective Writing

This workshop series reviews elements of clear, correct writing. Attention to grammar and sentence structure, especially for multilingual writers. Registration required. Location: online. Sign up

• Wednesday, September 25, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm - Writing Concisely and Precisely
• Wednesday, October 9, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm - Sentence Fragments and Run-Ons
• Wednesday, October 23, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm - Sentences in Sequence
• Wednesday, November 6, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm - Paragraph Design

Reading Strategies

Active Reading for Difficult Texts. In this workshop, you’ll develop strategies for tackling challenging texts, including scholarly articles drawn from different
disciplines. Sign up (select the workshops you wish to attend)

• Wednesday, September 18, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
• Monday, October 28, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Analyzing Texts: Reading to Write. You’ve heard it before: careful reading is the basis for solid writing. But how do you get from noticing details as you read
to formulating a direction for your paper? This workshop allows you to practice the skills involved. Sign up (select the workshops you wish to attend)

• Monday, October 7, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
• Tuesday, November 19, 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Academic Writing Boot Camp

This workshop series addresses elements of research-based writing. Registration required. Location: online. Sign up

• Saturday, September 21, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Your Writing Process
• Saturday, September 28, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Setting Up Your Research Project
• Saturday, October 5, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Reading Strategies
• Saturday, October 19, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm - Assembling Your Argument
• Saturday, October 26, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Panic-Free Drafting
• Saturday, November 2, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing
• Saturday, November 9, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Refining Your Argument With Sources
• Saturday, November 16, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Revising Like a Pro

Writing the Literature Review

Overview of the writing process for this key academic genre, emphasizing organizational and drafting strategies.Registration required. Location: online. Sign up

• Tuesday, November 12, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Lehman Tutoring Center Writing Values

Lehman Tutoring Center Writing Tutors value their diversity as a staff and are dedicated to making sure students see their diverse and unique experiences and characteristics as resources to draw on, not barriers to overcome.

Lehman Tutoring Center Writing is Proudly Multi-Lingual

Like students, our tutors use many different languages. Lehman Tutoring Center writing tutors are dedicated to making sure students see their unique education, life, and language experience as vital resources to draw on, not barriers to overcome.

The work we do requires ongoing critical reflection, and we are always developing our approaches so that we are working in CREATIVE, INCLUSIVE, and EFFECTIVE ways to facilitate students working to accomplish wide-ranging goals. Over the years, writing tutors have collaborated to articulate our most important practices and values:

• Listen actively to establish a supportive, collaborative relationship and understand a student’s thought processes 
• Facilitate reflective/metacognitive thinking
• Affirm and draw on students’ multiculturalism and multilingualism
• Pose high quality questions to guide and deepen student’s thinking
• Encourage student decision-making to help them develop increasing confidence and self-direction
• Review and reflect on the session with the student throughout and/or at the end of the session
• Encourage and enable students to make connections between and among coursework, assignments, and the student’s experiences
• Explain directly or model when needed
• Guide students to develop effective learning/writing/reading habits
• Analyze assignments carefully with students
• Introduce and model concrete strategies like add, delete, move, connect for the revision process

Links We Like

• Online Writing Lab at Purdue - The OWL provides free writing and research instructional materials from paraphrasing sources to composing job application materials to composing for different subjects or disciplines. 

• UNC Writing Center Handouts and Resources - The UNC Chapel Hill Writing Center provides free online resources, including step-by-step videos, on writing processes, sentence-level concerns, and composing specific genres.

• Lehman Library Research Guides - Lehman's research guides are a great place for students to begin their research process. Our libraries collaborate with faculty to compile discipline-, subject-, and course-specific print and digital resources including recommended books, databases, and web resources. A guide for citation is also available.
  
  
• Texas Wesleyan Library’s Guide to Research - Texas Wesleyan University created this resource to explain a step-by-step approach to research.

• UC Library Guide to Beginning Research - The University of California, Irvine, created this tutorial to explain a step-by-step approach to research.

• The Learning Network - The New York Times provides engaging material, from short films to news quizzes, vocabulary lessons, and contests. Start with their guide to using the site here.

• App Compendium - UNC Chapel Hill offers a guide to applications designed to facilitate a productive academic life. See recommendations and discussions of particular tools.