Writing competency is a vital step towards academic success in middle school, high school, and higher education. The establishment of a comfort level with regard to essay writing is fundamental. Many students moving from middle to high school become overwhelmed when assigned their first paper. Most are even more flabbergasted when they arrive at college and are required to write term papers.

At Study Hut, our tutors work with your students to build an outline—a formula, of sorts—for a paper which we think can be applied to writing universally. This formula starts with and builds upon a thesis statement, which declares the general purpose of the essay. Thesis statement writing is too frequently overlooked in compulsory English or writing education, so many students don’t know where to begin or how to address a topic or prompt. By teaching them the simple skill of jotting down their first meaningful statement of purpose, we hope to provide students with a foundation upon which they can do nothing but grow and learn.

It amazes me how many students I talk to these days who admit to not reading regularly or skimming their assigned reading. It’s a lot!! The shame is that these same kids complain how many vocabulary words they need to know for the SAT’s, and how many flashcards they need to make. Making flashcards is a very effective way to increase your vocab, but it’s not the best. Simple regular reading is by far the most effective way for anyone to build their vocabulary.
Reading exposes us to many words we don’t commonly use in everyday life, many of which end up being used in the SAT’s. Sometimes we look up the definition of these new words, other times we are able to grasp the meaning on our own; either way we increase our vocabulary. Not only are we just exposed to new words while reading, we see get to see them in context. Personally, it’s much easier to remember what a word means by seeing used in a sentence, compared to memorizing dictionary definitions.
I tell every student I see to try and read at least 20 minutes a day. Whether it is the newest Harry Potter, sports magazine, newspaper, or internet article, the simple act of reading goes a long way in preparing for the SAT’s.

One of the most gratifying things about being a tutor at the Study Hut is when students have an “a-ha!” moment. We’ve all had a few of these; when nothing seems to be making sense and then all of a sudden, everything clicks. It’s a great feeling and one I personally enjoy seeing in our hut students.
Mason is a student at Palos Verdes High School and doesn’t particularly enjoy writing essays. He came in one day with an assignment to write about someone who has influenced his life in a positive way. Mason had a lot of great stories about his football coach but couldn’t figure out how to organize all of this overwhelming information into a structured essay. Mason asked, “Why do I have to organize this? It takes away from the fun of writing my story.” When I told him that an essay is a way of convincing the reader of something you believe in, everything clicked. “Ohhh I can totally convince you.” Mason said with a big grin. After I told Mason to tell me why his coach motivates him, not only was Mason listing positive attributes about his coach, but he was also giving me descriptive reasons and examples that helped support his argument.
After he told me everything, we got it down on paper in an outline format. Mason expressed that outlining the essay actually wasn’t as hard as he originally thought. He also even thought it was cool that he was able to write an essay about something that was important in his life.
Whether it’s writing essays, studying for chemistry or working out A.P. calculus problems, students are bound to have many “a-ha!” moments while working with tutors at the Study Hut.