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Marianne B.

College Application Essays; SAT/ACT; Academic Writing & Editing

College Application Essays; SAT/ACT; Academic Writing & Editing

$60/hour

5.0 (772 ratings)

  • 2,186 hours tutoring

About Marianne

Bio

Bio
As a former college admission associate director, high school English teacher, university writing tutor, and free-lance tutor, I have direct experience with responding to student writing, both as an assessor and editor. I have helped high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doc students with their academic writing for over 20 years.

With a B.A. in English and a M.Ed. with a concentration in writing and grammar, I approach tutoring with a strong pedagogical background that is...

Bio
As a former college admission associate director, high school English teacher, university writing tutor, and free-lance tutor, I have direct experience with responding to student writing, both as an assessor and editor. I have helped high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doc students with their academic writing for over 20 years.

With a B.A. in English and a M.Ed. with a concentration in writing and grammar, I approach tutoring with a strong pedagogical background that is informed by a deep appreciation for maintaining my student's voice while guiding them toward writing that is clear, concise, and polished.

Qualifications
My M.Ed degree in traditional and rhetorical grammar and college composition includes training and professional development in tutoring practices and pedagogy. As a writing tutor at a major university writing center, I've helped thousands of college writers achieve their writing goals.

Having been trained by the makers of the ACT, I help students with mastering the content and test-taking strategies for both the ACT and SAT; my students often exceed their score goals.

As a professional editor, I've edited PhD dissertations and university faculty copy for submission to professional journals.

Specialties
Academic Writing: High school, college, and post-doc research editing

Traditional and Linguistic Grammar: Teaching basic and advanced grammar

ACT/SAT English & Writing exams: Teaching content and test-taking strategies with propitiatory lessons and official practice exams

Methods
I individualize each session by collaborating with the student to establish the agenda, prioritize the objectives, and write out clear "next steps". We productively focus on the established agenda as I ask clarifying questions, indicate issues, and model solutions tailored to the unique demands of each student and each task. Whether I am helping them with the first steps of idea generation for a personal narrative or proofreading the final draft of a dissertation, my students quickly fi

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Education

Illinois Wesleyan University
English
DePaul University
MEd
St. Bonaventure University
Graduate Coursework

Policies

  • Hourly Rate: $60
  • Rate details: My rate is negotiable depending on your circumstances. After the first session, we can discuss a new rate for ongoing lessons.
  • Lesson cancellation: 4 hours notice required

  • Background check passed on 8/3/2020

  • Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee

Schedule

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Subjects

Corporate Training

ESL/ESOL,

ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL Qualifications I have five years experience tutoring international students at DePaul University's Multicultural Center for Writing and Reading. I tutored English language learners from a multitude of countries using popular methodologies and components of major language areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. I planned and implemented effective lessons, using my knowledge of TESOL, English grammar, and applied linguistics .
Grammar,

Grammar

I have taught high school grammar. I have graduate-level coursework in Grammar for Teachers and Advanced Linguistic and Traditional Grammar. I have tutored countless students on grammar-based issues. I have graduate-level coursework in editing for grammar.
Proofreading

Proofreading

I have over six years of experience in proofreading/editing/and polishing all levels of writing, from college/scholarship applications to PhD dissertations. I quickly and effectively edit a range of documents using track changes, margin comments, and the conventions of editing markup. I have experience in editing government documents for Plain Language Editing. I have created editorial style guides for non-profits and proofread faculty copy for book publication and edited graduate student submissions for publication in various journals.

Elementary Education

Grammar,

Grammar

I have taught high school grammar. I have graduate-level coursework in Grammar for Teachers and Advanced Linguistic and Traditional Grammar. I have tutored countless students on grammar-based issues. I have graduate-level coursework in editing for grammar.
Vocabulary

English

ACT English,

ACT English

My ACT English tutoring plan helps students develop a strong skill set to master the three parts of the English exam: Grammar, usage, and rhetoric, Reading, and Writing. I individualize the plan to meet each student’s goal for the ACT--whether it’s to improve grammar and usage, reading, writing, or all three. English Grammar and Usage: Students learn to quickly identify and correct errors in the grammar and usage conventions typically used on the exam. These conventions, which comprise 40 out of the 75 English questions, are: Punctuation: internal and end-of-sentence punctuation, with emphasis on the relationship of punctuation to meaning and avoiding ambiguity. Grammar and usage: agreement between subject & verb, pronoun & antecedent, and modifiers & the word modified; verbs and verbals; tense and aspect; and idiomatic usage Sentence Structures: compound and complex sentences, relationships between and among clauses, conjunctions, placement of modifiers, shifts in construction and focus, a Rhetoric: phrases, nominal structures, revising for clarity and conciseness Reading: Students learn ways to quickly analyze the four subject passages-- social studies, natural sciences, literature, and humanities— to identify the main idea, compare ideas, generalize ideas, identify relationships such as cause-and-effect, and define words based on context Writing: Students learn to use advanced rhetoric to write a unified, coherent essay that clearly states an insightful perspective on an issue and supports a nuanced, precise thesis. They learn to develop the significance of the issue in logical and organized paragraphs. Test-taking Strategies: Students learn to unpack each multiple-choice item and eliminate wrong answers. They learn to engage with the readings and pay close attention to questions. They learn strategies for when they are stuck on a question, word, or section of a passage. They learn the difference between reading, skimming, and scanning. And last, but certainly not least, they learn how to manage
ACT Reading,

ACT Reading

I began my graduate studies in education with courses such as Reading and Learning Disabilities, Assessment and Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, Human Development and Reading, and Literacy for the Exceptional Child. As a high school English teacher, I was committed to improving the literacy challenges of my students who struggled with reading. While I’m a born reader, I wanted to understand how the brain learns to read and why decoding skills frustrated bright students. My strong background in graduate-level instruction in reading and my experience in teaching reading as a high school English teacher allow me to offer personalized reading instruction to any student. Whether my students are preparing for the ACT, SAT Reading exams or reading literature and poetry for high school or college assignments, they all enjoy gains in their reading comprehension and speed.
English,

English

I've taught AP Literature and Composition classes, and as a college writing tutor at a major university, I worked with students on all genres of writing from all academic departments.
ESL/ESOL,

ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL Qualifications I have five years experience tutoring international students at DePaul University's Multicultural Center for Writing and Reading. I tutored English language learners from a multitude of countries using popular methodologies and components of major language areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. I planned and implemented effective lessons, using my knowledge of TESOL, English grammar, and applied linguistics .
Grammar,

Grammar

I have taught high school grammar. I have graduate-level coursework in Grammar for Teachers and Advanced Linguistic and Traditional Grammar. I have tutored countless students on grammar-based issues. I have graduate-level coursework in editing for grammar.
Literature,

Literature

My experience as a high school English teacher and college-level tutor has equipped me with effective strategies that can help you develop a more active and interrogative mode of reading literature. I show you how to form an understanding of the work, including the genre and literary movement. I also help students with writing responses such as literary analysis, interpretation, and criticism.
Proofreading,

Proofreading

I have over six years of experience in proofreading/editing/and polishing all levels of writing, from college/scholarship applications to PhD dissertations. I quickly and effectively edit a range of documents using track changes, margin comments, and the conventions of editing markup. I have experience in editing government documents for Plain Language Editing. I have created editorial style guides for non-profits and proofread faculty copy for book publication and edited graduate student submissions for publication in various journals.
SAT Reading,

SAT Reading

Through graduate courses such as Reading and Learning Disabilities, Assessment and Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, Human Development and Reading, and Literacy for the Exceptional Child and as a high school English teacher committed to improving the literacy challenges of my students who struggled with reading, I am uniquely poised to offer help in ACT/SAT Reading exam preparation. My strong pedagogical and teaching background has lead to me to understand how the brain learns to read and why decoding skills frustrate bright students. Whether my students are preparing for the ACT, SAT Reading exams or reading literature and poetry for high school or college assignments, they all enjoy gains in their reading comprehension and speed.
Writing,

Writing

During my years of teaching high school English, tutoring writing at DePaul University, and as a private tutor, I've helped students with all kinds of English homework assignments. My methods include showing students how to analyze the rhetorical demands of the writing task, generate and focus ideas at the prewriting stage, ensure they are addressing the writing assignment directly and effectively, elaborate and rework a rough draft after hearing the writer read the draft aloud, discover their strengths and weaknesses in a particular rhetorical context, strengthen arguments, spot weak rhetorical choices and make more effective choices, and address formatting or other surface-level concerns.
SAT Writing, Vocabulary

Homeschool

English,

English

I've taught AP Literature and Composition classes, and as a college writing tutor at a major university, I worked with students on all genres of writing from all academic departments.
ESL/ESOL,

ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL Qualifications I have five years experience tutoring international students at DePaul University's Multicultural Center for Writing and Reading. I tutored English language learners from a multitude of countries using popular methodologies and components of major language areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. I planned and implemented effective lessons, using my knowledge of TESOL, English grammar, and applied linguistics .
SAT Reading,

SAT Reading

Through graduate courses such as Reading and Learning Disabilities, Assessment and Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, Human Development and Reading, and Literacy for the Exceptional Child and as a high school English teacher committed to improving the literacy challenges of my students who struggled with reading, I am uniquely poised to offer help in ACT/SAT Reading exam preparation. My strong pedagogical and teaching background has lead to me to understand how the brain learns to read and why decoding skills frustrate bright students. Whether my students are preparing for the ACT, SAT Reading exams or reading literature and poetry for high school or college assignments, they all enjoy gains in their reading comprehension and speed.
Writing

Writing

During my years of teaching high school English, tutoring writing at DePaul University, and as a private tutor, I've helped students with all kinds of English homework assignments. My methods include showing students how to analyze the rhetorical demands of the writing task, generate and focus ideas at the prewriting stage, ensure they are addressing the writing assignment directly and effectively, elaborate and rework a rough draft after hearing the writer read the draft aloud, discover their strengths and weaknesses in a particular rhetorical context, strengthen arguments, spot weak rhetorical choices and make more effective choices, and address formatting or other surface-level concerns.

Language

ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL Qualifications I have five years experience tutoring international students at DePaul University's Multicultural Center for Writing and Reading. I tutored English language learners from a multitude of countries using popular methodologies and components of major language areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. I planned and implemented effective lessons, using my knowledge of TESOL, English grammar, and applied linguistics .

Most Popular

English,

English

I've taught AP Literature and Composition classes, and as a college writing tutor at a major university, I worked with students on all genres of writing from all academic departments.
ESL/ESOL,

ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL Qualifications I have five years experience tutoring international students at DePaul University's Multicultural Center for Writing and Reading. I tutored English language learners from a multitude of countries using popular methodologies and components of major language areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. I planned and implemented effective lessons, using my knowledge of TESOL, English grammar, and applied linguistics .
Writing

Writing

During my years of teaching high school English, tutoring writing at DePaul University, and as a private tutor, I've helped students with all kinds of English homework assignments. My methods include showing students how to analyze the rhetorical demands of the writing task, generate and focus ideas at the prewriting stage, ensure they are addressing the writing assignment directly and effectively, elaborate and rework a rough draft after hearing the writer read the draft aloud, discover their strengths and weaknesses in a particular rhetorical context, strengthen arguments, spot weak rhetorical choices and make more effective choices, and address formatting or other surface-level concerns.

Other

College Counseling,

College Counseling

I help students write their best possible college application essays by guiding them through the steps of the writing task: understand the demands of the prompt, generate ideas at the pre-writing stage, elaborate and revise the rough draft, and proofread the final copy. Throughout the process, my students strengthen their ideas, spot weak rhetorical and organization choices and make appropriate ones, and correct grammar and other surface-level concerns. After working with me, students have developed a polished essay written in their own voice. The result is a more confident student and a personal essay that is immersive, thought-provoking, and natural-sounding. My college admission background as an associate director at a highly selective college has given me special insight in how to guide prospective students throughout the entire application process--from helping with admission and scholarship essays, to assisting with matriculation and enrollment.
ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL Qualifications I have five years experience tutoring international students at DePaul University's Multicultural Center for Writing and Reading. I tutored English language learners from a multitude of countries using popular methodologies and components of major language areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. I planned and implemented effective lessons, using my knowledge of TESOL, English grammar, and applied linguistics .

Summer

ESL/ESOL,

ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL Qualifications I have five years experience tutoring international students at DePaul University's Multicultural Center for Writing and Reading. I tutored English language learners from a multitude of countries using popular methodologies and components of major language areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. I planned and implemented effective lessons, using my knowledge of TESOL, English grammar, and applied linguistics .
Writing

Writing

During my years of teaching high school English, tutoring writing at DePaul University, and as a private tutor, I've helped students with all kinds of English homework assignments. My methods include showing students how to analyze the rhetorical demands of the writing task, generate and focus ideas at the prewriting stage, ensure they are addressing the writing assignment directly and effectively, elaborate and rework a rough draft after hearing the writer read the draft aloud, discover their strengths and weaknesses in a particular rhetorical context, strengthen arguments, spot weak rhetorical choices and make more effective choices, and address formatting or other surface-level concerns.

Test Preparation

ACT English,

ACT English

My ACT English tutoring plan helps students develop a strong skill set to master the three parts of the English exam: Grammar, usage, and rhetoric, Reading, and Writing. I individualize the plan to meet each student’s goal for the ACT--whether it’s to improve grammar and usage, reading, writing, or all three. English Grammar and Usage: Students learn to quickly identify and correct errors in the grammar and usage conventions typically used on the exam. These conventions, which comprise 40 out of the 75 English questions, are: Punctuation: internal and end-of-sentence punctuation, with emphasis on the relationship of punctuation to meaning and avoiding ambiguity. Grammar and usage: agreement between subject & verb, pronoun & antecedent, and modifiers & the word modified; verbs and verbals; tense and aspect; and idiomatic usage Sentence Structures: compound and complex sentences, relationships between and among clauses, conjunctions, placement of modifiers, shifts in construction and focus, a Rhetoric: phrases, nominal structures, revising for clarity and conciseness Reading: Students learn ways to quickly analyze the four subject passages-- social studies, natural sciences, literature, and humanities— to identify the main idea, compare ideas, generalize ideas, identify relationships such as cause-and-effect, and define words based on context Writing: Students learn to use advanced rhetoric to write a unified, coherent essay that clearly states an insightful perspective on an issue and supports a nuanced, precise thesis. They learn to develop the significance of the issue in logical and organized paragraphs. Test-taking Strategies: Students learn to unpack each multiple-choice item and eliminate wrong answers. They learn to engage with the readings and pay close attention to questions. They learn strategies for when they are stuck on a question, word, or section of a passage. They learn the difference between reading, skimming, and scanning. And last, but certainly not least, they learn how to manage
ACT Reading,

ACT Reading

I began my graduate studies in education with courses such as Reading and Learning Disabilities, Assessment and Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, Human Development and Reading, and Literacy for the Exceptional Child. As a high school English teacher, I was committed to improving the literacy challenges of my students who struggled with reading. While I’m a born reader, I wanted to understand how the brain learns to read and why decoding skills frustrated bright students. My strong background in graduate-level instruction in reading and my experience in teaching reading as a high school English teacher allow me to offer personalized reading instruction to any student. Whether my students are preparing for the ACT, SAT Reading exams or reading literature and poetry for high school or college assignments, they all enjoy gains in their reading comprehension and speed.
College Counseling,

College Counseling

I help students write their best possible college application essays by guiding them through the steps of the writing task: understand the demands of the prompt, generate ideas at the pre-writing stage, elaborate and revise the rough draft, and proofread the final copy. Throughout the process, my students strengthen their ideas, spot weak rhetorical and organization choices and make appropriate ones, and correct grammar and other surface-level concerns. After working with me, students have developed a polished essay written in their own voice. The result is a more confident student and a personal essay that is immersive, thought-provoking, and natural-sounding. My college admission background as an associate director at a highly selective college has given me special insight in how to guide prospective students throughout the entire application process--from helping with admission and scholarship essays, to assisting with matriculation and enrollment.
SAT Reading,

SAT Reading

Through graduate courses such as Reading and Learning Disabilities, Assessment and Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, Human Development and Reading, and Literacy for the Exceptional Child and as a high school English teacher committed to improving the literacy challenges of my students who struggled with reading, I am uniquely poised to offer help in ACT/SAT Reading exam preparation. My strong pedagogical and teaching background has lead to me to understand how the brain learns to read and why decoding skills frustrate bright students. Whether my students are preparing for the ACT, SAT Reading exams or reading literature and poetry for high school or college assignments, they all enjoy gains in their reading comprehension and speed.
SAT Writing

Examples of Expertise

Marianne has provided examples of their subject expertise by answering 1 question submitted by students on Wyzant’s Ask an Expert.

See all of Marianne ’s answers ›

Ratings and Reviews

Rating

5.0 (772 ratings)
5 star
(756)
4 star
(11)
3 star
(1)
2 star
(2)
1 star
(2)

Reviews

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All reviews

Featured review

Great teacher that goes above and beyond

Marianne helped my 10th grade daughter with her major summative writing project today, and my daughter called her the best tutor ever, very knowledgeable, responsible and even her way of communicating if very calming and comfortable! She wanted to continue working with Marianne going forward! Nothing makes us happier than seeing my daughter motivated with accomplishment and happy after the tutoring session.

sharon, 2 lessons with Marianne

Very Good Essay writing Tutor

Marianne goes directly deep into the SAT essay writing. She is familiar with SAT prompts and student's struggle. She points out so much that my daughter needs to improve. She also utilizes the one-hour lesson carefully. Overall, she is an expert. Highly recommend. Megan.

Megan, 4 lessons with Marianne

Highly knowledgeable tutor

Marianne connects well with my daughter. She helped her to identify and worked on fixing her weaknesses. She is an effective tutor. I will recommend her. Thank you Marianne

Sue, 9 lessons with Marianne

A true 5 Star tutor

Marianne is the best writing tutor we have had so far. She is very knowledgeable, patient and passionate. My son is learning the stuff from Marianne that he has never been taught from school, and my son loves her teaching style. We will stay with her for sure.

Star, 21 lessons with Marianne

Extremely knowledgeable and patient tutor!

Marianne is an outstanding tutor! Not only is she extremely knowledgeable on her topic, but her personality eases the students into letting their creativity flow freely. My son Max is very imaginative, therefore, when working on writing assignments or projects he lets his imagination get, oh well, perhaps a bit too creative, and I noticed that Marianne has a very gentle way to bringing him back to the main focus of the assignment, without making Max feel that his ideas or input are not important. To the contrary, I see that Marianne helps him build upon those ideas and guides him into incorporating them to the topic at hand. To me this is a tremendous skill for a tutor to possess. In the end, Max is always happy after each session, telling me about all the fun he had during his session, happy with the final results, and looking forward to his next session. Thank you, Marianne! Frances (Max’s Mom)

Frances v., 33 lessons with Marianne

Extremely knowledgeable and patient tutor!

Marianne is an outstanding tutor! Not only is she extremely knowledgeable on her topic, but her personality eases the students into letting their creativity flow freely. My son Max is very imaginative, therefore, when working on writing assignments or projects he lets his imagination get, oh well, perhaps a bit too creative, and I noticed that Marianne has a very gentle way to bringing him back to the main focus of the assignment, without making Max feel that his ideas or input are not important. To the contrary, I see that Marianne helps him build upon those ideas and guides him into incorporating them to the topic at hand. To me this is a tremendous skill for a tutor to possess. In the end, Max is always happy after each session, telling me about all the fun he had during his session, happy with the final results, and looking forward to his next session. Thank you, Marianne! Frances (Max’s Mom)

Frances v., 33 lessons with Marianne

Best English Tutor!

Marianne has been proofreading my essays for the past semester or so. Throughout that time, I have written close to a dozen essays all revised by Marianne. She is not only well versed in every topic you can think of writing about, but also her way with words is second to none. To keep this review concise, my lowest grade on a paper thus far has been a 93% and all my writing has been for college classes. She took my papers from the low 80’s to high 90’s. Marianne is the main reason why I got a 98% last semester in English.

Ethan, 14 lessons with Marianne

Great knowledge of High School literature and writing style

Marianne was very patient with my son, not critical of his ideas, but helped him to take a deeper dive and develop his ideas. She helped him express his own voice but in a grammatically correct way. Thank you, Marianne!

Michelle, 5 lessons with Marianne

Extremely knowledgeable and patient tutor!

Marianne is an outstanding tutor! Not only is she extremely knowledgeable on her topic, but her personality eases the students into letting their creativity flow freely. My son Max is very imaginative, therefore, when working on writing assignments or projects he lets his imagination get, oh well, perhaps a bit too creative, and I noticed that Marianne has a very gentle way to bringing him back to the main focus of the assignment, without making Max feel that his ideas or input are not important. To the contrary, I see that Marianne helps him build upon those ideas and guides him into incorporating them to the topic at hand. To me this is a tremendous skill for a tutor to possess. In the end, Max is always happy after each session, telling me about all the fun he had during his session, happy with the final results, and looking forward to his next session. Thank you, Marianne! Frances (Max’s Mom)

Frances v., 33 lessons with Marianne

Experienced academic writer

Marianne helped me to troubleshoot various issues in my academic writing and offered constructive suggestions to improve the flow, construction, and expression of my ideas.

Mei, 9 lessons with Marianne
Contact Marianne

Response time: 3 hours

$60/hour

Marianne B.'s Photo

Marianne B.

$60/hour

  • No subscriptions or upfront payments

  • Only pay for the time you need

  • Find the right fit, or your first hour is free

Contact Marianne

Response time: 3 hours