With decades of experience in education, Amy practices the professional ethics of her discipline as well as ethical guidelines for academic tutors and college consultants. You can read more about these ethical guidelines here:
A little more detail about the kinds of activities that ethical and effective essay coaches engage in
Makes sure you understand the writing prompts and what your answer(s) should convey.
Asks lots of questions: about what you’re saying, how you’re saying it, and how you organize ideas.
Not emotionally involved with the content.
Takes you on a journey; never dictates your path.
Helps brainstorm: provides tools and an unbiased judgement to develop your ideas.
Acts as a scribe and sometimes a translator but never writes for you.
Points to problems in the text without fixing them: lack of detail, unclear arguments, weak transitions, or places where the logic misfires.
Provides tools and practice for tackling problems.
Provides honest assessments of your work.
Spends little time getting to know you, discussing the prompt, and brainstorming.
Does not ask many questions. Leads the conversation rather than guides it. Talks about what you “should” do a lot.
Provides answers more often than asks questions.
Adds insights to the essay that are not your own.
Writes whole sentences and passages of your essay. The essay no longer sounds like a high school student and becomes high risk in the application rounds.
Frequently finds bigger words in the thesaurus for you to use. Does not talk about the need for language to be accurate for the content and also true to the writer’s personality and ability levels.
Fixes problems in the text for you.
“Amy’s constructive and insightful feedback has also helped me step outside of my comfort zone in writing.”
Soren Saara
Lewis Carroll