I know a couple professionals who are happy with what they can tell AI to do for them that helps them complete tasks more quickly. One has it summarize the key points in emails or other documents that he created himself to use in a new document he is drafting. And he can refocus his request to get successively better and more refined responses from it.

The other professional who is happy with what AI can do for him is manipulating and reconstructing a website. He tells AI to do the computer programming so he doesn’t have to write the programming language. And if it isn’t quite the way he wants it to look, he refines his instructions to AI until it gets the look and function on the website that he wants.

I see value in those uses of AI. The human is asking for, refining their instructions, and eventually getting the result they had hoped for to use as they intend. It is all their original work with technology assisting them.

What does a tutor offer that AI cannot provide a student?

The use of AI to summarize researched texts, organize essays, or review and refine essay drafts are tasks I don’t think that AI does well—at least in some respects. I say that, because every time I research how to use AI or what are good uses for AI, the description always includes the caveat that “AI makes mistakes or sometimes hallucinates [creates information that isn’t in the text], so always check its responses for accuracy.”

That says to me that AI is unreliable. Why would I waste my time getting a summary from AI and then take the time to double check that the information AI presented me is accurate from the text? I fear that too many inexperienced writers won’t take the time to review for accuracy and, rather, accept what AI has given them as though it is fact or correct.

AI can’t feel. So it misses the nuanced feelings of the connotations of the words in a text.

From an article I read recently in the NY Times, a college professor said many colleges are now requiring students to hand write in blue books in class timed writings in order to ascertain what the student really knows and can communicate in clear and well-structured essays in response to a prompt. He said the reason is because what students submit that they researched and drafted out of class is too often AI generated. The student too often has not read the articles or books, has not gleaned the significant information, has not crafted their own position about the topic, has not organized their essay, nor explained how the evidence cited from the sources supports their position. So instructors and institutions must adapt to find other ways to examine or test each student’s knowledge and skill in their subject area.

I don’t like AI because I love to read and figure out what a writer is saying. I like analyzing texts myself. I don’t accept what other people say unless they can support their ideas with evidence. I trust my own knowledge and skills of analysis to understand a text and find key material to use in my own writing as source material that supports my ideas or reveals to me that my thinking is in error and I need to change my thinking.

If a student reads the sources that AI might help them find—though there might be better sources than the ones AI selects—if the student does the analysis and draws their own conclusions, then their writing will demonstrate the depth of their knowledge about the subject. That’s what instructors have used research papers to do for decades—maybe even for centuries. A student increases their knowledge and skill in thinking and writing by doing this process themselves.

The question remains: will students rely on AI to draft their essays and not come to tutors to help them learn the process, review their drafts and suggest where and how they can refine their skills to craft essays into masterpieces?

The Wyzant students I work with all are eager to improve their own skill and ability to craft powerful essays or other types of writing themselves. Likewise, the tutor.com students who submit essays or request live sessions want the tutor to find places they can improve their essays. The vast majority of students I’ve worked with are eager to learn how to improve their own skills as well as this particular essay.

Sometimes I suspect a draft I receive to review is AI generated or a cutting and pasting of AI material because it lacks unity and coherence. Or it is a compilation of general—often surface knowledge—about the topic with no depth or synthesis of sources to reveal the nuances or complexities of that topic with few or no applicable examples the writer should have included. Other times there may be a compilation of source material with in text citations, but the draft lacks some of the essential elements of an essay—introduction, thesis statement, transitions, topic sentences that claim key ideas of the writer’s position on the topic in each body paragraph, or a conclusion that draws the key ideas into a summary that reveals discoveries the writer has made while grappling with the topic and the sources they found.

I wish I knew how to convince every student that I tutor that doing the research, analysis and drafting work is difficult and very rewarding—worth doing for themselves.

I enjoy a new challenge. In tutoring, this came in the form of a student who wanted help in broadcast writing. I’ve written for broadcast —both rewriting Associated Press (AP) stories and covering local events and writing those stories for the local radio news cast. The other broadcast writing came as I directed and produced three half hour programs that were aired on the local PBS affiliate in Muncie, IN back in the day when I was studying for my Master’s Degree. So that required directing a camera crew and then editing the actual video tape (in the days before digital editing came into the broadcast field), drafting the script for Voice Over (VO) of the Sound on Tape (SOT) footage and then recording the VO of the edited video program.

Now that the garlic is all braided and almost all sold, my attention turns in earnest to finding new students to tutor. And just in time as the academic year gears up.

It is a great joy to meet with the same student for a session each week. We look at what tasks they are developing for various classes and study strategies to help them complete those tasks successfully. There is nothing better than receiving a text from the student: “Ms. Deborah, I got 97% on my AP practice Multiple Choice (MC) exam!” I am as excited as the student. It is delightful to see their skills and confidence develop week by week, term by term, and course by course.

As the student is more independent of my help because they have integrated skills into their planning and drafting processes, I seek new strategies for the next assignments they will encounter in their courses. I let the student guide me to know what task or skills they need for upcoming assignments. We rely on teacher scoring rubrics, comments and in class instruction to be sure my instruction is in sync with what the student is receiving in class.

2023 was eventful and in many ways stressful, yet it presented hope for growth in my tutoring business through WYZANT.com Learning Studio.

Early in December ‘23, I was grateful when my first WYZANT student accepted my application for a job. We met for 3 sessions and they progressed well. They said they were pleased to work with me and that I’d been helpful to their writing process. Yet they did not leave a rating or a review.

Ratings and reviews—that’s what other students or their parents look at to see if they want to request me to be their tutor. I try really hard to provide each student/writer the coaching and help they need to become better writers and to polish the essay they are drafting or revising at the moment. I need my tutoring students to leave ratings and good reviews. I’ve received mostly 5* reviews. However, I’m grateful for every review. Some point out what they want me to do differently. Some may be irritated with tutors before they get to me, and some may have nothing good to say about me. Their reviews are also valuable to me to help me learn how to better serve their needs.

A couple weeks after that first Wyzant student, a doctoral student selected me to review a critical report 2 days before it was due. I agreed to begin immediately and review their report until my next appointment (which was a Christmas gathering with musician friends). I’d return to finish posting my review to them at a specified time that same evening. They accepted these timeframes.

After working 20 minutes past the time I told them I needed to stop, as soon as we were on our way to the gathering, I continued to review and mark the draft for 30 minutes on the road, each way. On return to the Learning Studio a half hour before I’d promised, I added in-line comments. Then I noticed a message from the doctoral student.

They had messaged to say, “Thank you, but I need someone who understands the doctorate and content perspective.” I responded, a bit offended, that I do understand the Doctorate and content perspective. They’d hired me to proofread and help with clarity of language. So that is what I reviewed in the document. And those were the highlights I’d made on the doc. I left comments where the language was unclear—did not communicate a clear idea. I finished commenting, sent them a link to the reviewed doc and, as I always do, sent a link to the Summary Response form with definitions, examples, and some links to further explain the language commentary I’d left.

I charged them for 20 minutes less than I’d informed them I’d spent Reviewing and commenting on the doc. They paid my full rate (of which WYZANT gives me only 75%). The doctoral student did not post a rating or leave any grateful comment. Not a “Thank you, this helped me finalize my language choices. I appreciate that you fit my paper around and into your evening’s engagements at such late notice. It was kind of you to accommodate my needs and accept my request.” Nada.

I can understand that the simplistic definitions and simple instructions I have pre-scripted for college essays—some students are writing their first college essay after years away from school—obviously seemed too simplistic for the task he had to complete. So, despite my being offended, his comment informed me that I must create a Doctoral and Masters Cheat Sheet of resources and examples in more sophisticated, graduate level language .

I am grateful for the tutoring income. And I am a person, offering a service to people who want to use my knowledge and experience. I’m willing to share and help you benefit from what I’ve learned. I won’t do your work for you, but I’m delighted to teach you how to do what I know how to do. You have to put your ideas about your content and research into your text; you must paint those ideas with your voice AND with English diction, sentence construction, syntax, and language conventions to create your masterpiece to put on display for your audience to read.

My purpose for doing this tutoring job is to let you USE what I’ve learned. I hope to mentor writers (even those at the doctoral level or published authors) and some student writers to become the very best writers they can be. My goal is to develop independent writers who know what they want to say and how to say it most effectively so that the reader clearly follows their train of thought, understands, and is moved by what the writer is saying. I hope to create independent writers who don’t need me anymore.

By the time my third WYZANT student came to me, I’d read the tutor forums and found that I should ASK for ratings and reviews prior to the next session so that I find out the student’s perspective on how this session met their needs. Not only because this helps me plan the next session with that student, but also because ratings and reviews are posted on my public profile for prospective clients to see. I asked my student to watch for WYZ’s email and rating/review form. A day later when I’d not been informed of a rating, I sent them a message, asking for a review. Later they told me Wyzant emailed them the rating form after I sent my email to them. They immediately rated 5* and gave a warm, satisfied review. I’m grateful. Since their review, other students have requested I tutor them through Wyzant.

I hope I can help every writer who sends me a request for tutoring or proofreading. I hope each one will grow in their knowledge of essay writing and in their skills to masterfully craft the English language. I hope I continue to learn what to say and how to say it so my students know their own strengths and are willing to learn new skills. I hope I become a more empathic tutor/mentor/guide and am able to discern just what each writer needs. That is my hope for 2024.

dlcn