Tutor.com offers a comprehensive online essay writing course aimed at helping college students improve their essay writing skills. The course is self-paced and accessible on any device, allowing students the flexibility to learn at their own pace. It consists of over 50 self-guided video lessons taught by expert writing tutors covering all aspects of the essay writing process from brainstorming and outlining to revisions and citations.
The course begins by explaining the purpose and structure of academic essays. Students learn how tone, style and formatting vary depending on the subject matter and intended audience. Lessons provide guidelines on crafting clear thesis statements, supporting arguments and strong conclusions. Subsequent modules delve deeper into specific essay types like argumentative, comparative, cause-and-effect and narrative essays. Extensive examples illustrate the key elements required for each format.
Organization and structure are foundational skills covered in-depth. Lessons explain how to develop and effectively utilize outlines to stay organized. Students learn techniques for grouping and ordering related points to effectively support their thesis. The importance of transitions between paragraphs is emphasized to ensure logical flows of ideas. Students practice developing topic sentences that directly relate back to the controlling idea of each section.
Writing lively, impactful introductions and conclusions is another focus. Students learn approaches for hooking readers and establishing context in introductions using anecdotes, questions or relevant quotes. Lessons provide guidelines on crafting memorable conclusions that restate key points and potentially inspire further thought. Students gain practice crafting openings and closings for sample essays.
Developing strong evidence through research is a critical part of academic writing. Lessons introduce various research methods and outline strategies for efficiently gathering credible source material. Students learn how to properly evaluate sources for relevance and reliability to support their own ideas. Techniques are covered for effectively incorporating cited information into essays while avoiding plagiarism. Proper in-text citation and reference list formatting in MLA, APA and Chicago style are detailed.
Revising and editing are emphasized as important steps to produce polished, high-quality work. Lessons outline strategies for self-evaluation and critical analysis of one’s own writing. Students gain knowledge of common grammatical errors to avoid and techniques for improving word choice, sentence structure and paragraph coherence. Peer review exercises provide opportunities to exchange work with classmates for additional perspectives.
The course culminates with a final project that challenges students to apply the skills learned through independently researching and writing a comprehensive essay of their choosing. Detailed feedback from subject-matter expert tutors helps students identify areas for continued growth. Upon completion, students will have honed the core competencies required to produce organized, well-supported and mechanically sound college-level essays. They will leave the course more confident in their abilities to meet the rigors of academic writing in higher education.
With its comprehensive, flexible online approach and award-winning tutoring staff, Tutor.com’s college essay writing course provides students with a solid foundation that empowers success in any course requiring substantial written assignments. Students gain lifelong skills that transfer to future academic endeavors and professional communications.