eTutoring  Tags: etutoring tutoring help student services online writing center initiative iw wi cwe essay  

The Live Tutoring (or eChat) service allows you to meet online with a tutor in a one-on-one tutoring session. These sessions use a fully interactive, virtual online environment.

The subjects currently available are:

• Math (from the developmental level through Calc II)
• Accounting
• Biology (including Anatomy & Physiology)
• Chemistry 
• Information Literacy (and Research Methods)
• Statistics

If you use this part of the site, you'll see that colored tutor icons will indicate which tutors are online right now. Click on the icon if you wish to converse with a tutor. If a tutor isn't available for eChat in the subject you want to use, try leaving a question through Offline Questions.

The Weekly Tutor Schedules are available on the lower right-hand bottom of the welcome page at eTutoring.org.

The eWriting Lab is the service that we are most interested in PCCC students using. You can upload up to 3 drafts of a paper you are working on to a tutor. You can ask for specific feedback, and will receive your paper back with a tutor's response within 24-48 hours.

1. After you have completed your writing assignment, save your paper to your computer or to a disk, and remember where you have saved it for retrieval. Next, it is important that you close that file.
2. Click the "Browse" button and select the folder where your paper is stored, and select your paper by clicking on it twice.
3. An attachment address for your paper will now appear in the "Browse" window. 
4. Click on the "Submit Your Assignment" button. If you have successfully submitted your paper, you will see this message at the top of your eWriting Lab page: "Your writing sample has been submitted. You should receive a response within 24-48 hours."

There is no single list of qualities every essay must have. Each writing task asks you to do something different. For example, a writing assignment might ask you to tell a story, to provide information on a topic, to argue a point, or to explain an idea or issue. Because every writing assignment is different, every essay will be different. The more information that you give the tutor about the assignment when you submit, the more detailed the tutor's responses can be - so it is definitely to your benefit to complete the information at submission.

Here is what you will be asked about the paper:

• Instructor's Name  
• Paper's Title  
• Number of Pages
• Provide a detailed description of your assignment. What has your Instructor asked you to do? Be as specific as possible - if the professor has posted the assignment online in a LibGuide or other web page, copy & paste the assignment into eTutoring.     
• Some examples: * Are you telling a personal story?
      * Explaining how to do something?
      * Researching a topic?
      * Comparing and contrasting ideas or subjects?
      * Analyzing an issue?
      * Writing a memo or business report?
      * Preparing a case study?
      * Describing something?
      * Writing a scientific lab report?
• Citation? If your assignment requires citation (works cited page, footnotes, embedded citation) please indicate the form you are required to use (MLA, APA etc.) 
• What questions or concerns do you have about your writing and this assignment?  Is there something you want the tutor to focus on - like your use of citations or the introduction or conclusion?
• Is English your main Language? If not, let the tutopr know - that's useful in their analysis of problem areas.

Here is an example of the type of feeback you will receive from an e-tutor.  Typically, the tutor will start with several paragraphs of feedback, followed by suggestions within the body of your assignment [bold and in brackets].  The tutor will conclude with a list of next steps you should take with your assignment.

Offline eQuestions is a service that allows you to leave a specific question for an eTutor.

This is NOT an area where you ask to have a tutor review your essay, but rather a place for a more focused question (How do I cite a DVD as a source? Can my thesis sentence be in the second paragraph?). Tutors usually respond to these questions fairly and almost always within 48 hours.

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