The Art of Writing Tutoring Program supports students taking Reading & Composition (R&C) courses in all departments. Upper-level majors with proven writing skills provide one-on-one writing support to students taking R&C courses.
Tutors are available Sunday through Thursday evenings, and R&C students can sign up for a 30-minute online appointment. Tutoring is targeted, responding to the parameters of R&C instruction and the challenges faced by R&C student writers in each department.
Writing tutors are trained by experienced GSIs to support students at any stage of the writing process, from the early stages of brainstorming and organizing, to drafts- and revisions-in-progress, to sentence-level writing issues. These GSIs provide continued support and mentoring to tutors throughout the semester in the form of regular workshop meetings.
This program is modeled on a successful departmental tutoring program run by GSIs in the Comparative Literature department for the past several years. In addition to providing targeted writing support to a previously underserved group of student writers, this program aims to bring together R&C students, undergraduate majors, and graduate students in an ongoing conversation about the craft of writing.
Writing Fellows serve as embedded tutors in undergraduate courses. They provide students with discipline-specific support through a combination of in-class writing workshops and office hours. Writing Fellows differ from tutors available through other campus programs in that they have completed hte course in which they are embedded, and they are conversant with the course content. Moreover, they have received the training in composition pedagogy needed to address the types of issues encountered by writers in the discipline.
Nathan Atkinson directs the Art of Writing tutoring program and teaches two courses with Art of Writing: a class for transfer students designed to help them succeed in discipline-specific research and writing at UC Berkeley (offered online during Summer Sessions and in-person during the academic year), and a class for graduate students on how to teach writing.
Here Atkinson discusses what makes our tutoring program stand out, as well as his teaching philosophy and what he has learned through his years of teaching.
Get Tutoring
This year, we have expanded our tutoring program: tutors now provide one-on-one writing help to Reading & Composition students in all departments. If you are a student taking any R&C course, you’re welcome to schedule a session by clicking on the box below.
Sign up at least one day in advance for a 30-minute appointment.
(Note there will be no tutoring sessions during RRR or finals weeks, so please plan accordingly.)
Become a Tutor
We’re looking for upper-level students in participating departments with exemplary reading and writing skills and a strong interest in peer mentorship and teaching.
Tutors earn course units for their work while strengthening their reading and writing skills, gaining teaching experience, and learning from graduate student mentors. Each tutor is responsible for 3 hours of tutoring a week.
For more information about the Tutoring Program, contact Art of Writing Assistant Director Jane Liaw.