Writing, Literary Analysis & Research: Middle School to Grad School

Simon C.

I specialize in helping students master reading, writing, and research skills. I have eighteen years in education--ten in secondary ELA classrooms and eight teaching composition, methods courses, literature, and graduate coursework at the University of Northern Colorado, where I earned my PhD in Educational Psychology.
I provide support in writing instruction and revision (any level) and research skills (secondary through college). I can help with literary analysis as well! For higher-level research, I've designed my own research and have published it, so if you need help polishing up a methods section, analyzing qualitative data, writing a good lit review, or just help making sure your paper fits the requirements of a style guide--let me know!

I also work with current and future teachers on curriculum design, lesson planning, and instructional strategy--drawing on eight years as clinical faculty at UNCO, where I taught methods courses and coached student teachers, plus my own K-12 classroom experience building standards-aligned units and assessments. If you need help deconstructing standards or designing lessons or units (I use the backwards lesson planning model where we start with a standard or learning objective, design our assessments, and then create the instructional piece), I would love to provide support.

My favorite part of tutoring is helping students see that writing isn't as mysterious as it can feel. Because I've spent years on the other side of the desk--writing the assignments, building the rubrics, grading the papers--I can usually tell you what an assignment is actually asking for, even when the instructions or feedback feel vague. My goal is to take the guesswork out of it: breaking down organization, argument structure, citations, and revision into concrete, learnable skills, so you're working from a clear target instead of trying to guess what your teacher wants.