Susan

Verified teacher profile

5 (5 reviews)

Hourly rate $30
Response Time 1h
Number of students 3

1^st lesson free!

Retired English professor with 27 years of experience teaching literature analysis, writing, and literature appreciation, with a special focus in the areas of fairy tales and adolescent literature.

- Felton
- webcam

Super Prof

Susan is one of our best tutors Academic English. They have a high-quality profile, verified qualifications, a quick response time, and great reviews from students!

About the lesson

My strength is my ability to listen to your needs and to craft a series of lessons that will assist you with whatever skills you are looking to improve. I have a wealth of experience and I have taught thousands of students over the years. I am a master teacher, literary scholar, and published author, who was a professor at a small private liberal arts college for 27 years, and I love working with students one on one yo achieve great results. My classes are interesting amd innovative, and most students love that they learn about literature and writing while reading content that is not necessarily taught in high school or college English courses.

subjects

Academic English
Creative writing
Essay writing
+2

Poetry

Thesis

languages

English

levels

All Levels

About Susan

I began my career as an English tutor when I was in college. From there, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and then obtained my master’s degree. During that time, I ran a tutoring center at my college. I continued to tutor and to supervise English tutors. After graduation, I became an adjunct professor and I worked my way up to tenure track and earned tenure in 2007. Since then I worked my way up in rank and went to the level of associate professor of English before retiring this year. Right now I am working on building my own business as an editor and tutor and writer. I am also a creative writer who is working on revising a trilogy for publication. I have done all sorts of different types of writing: I have written for publication by writing short stories and editing stories and poetry, but I have also published literary criticism as a scholar. My experience spans a tremendous amount of styles of writing, so I am confident in being able to help students coming from all sorts of backgrounds with all sorts of needs. I am very personable and enjoyed a very fine reputation among the students at the college where I taught for 27 years, and I am grateful to call so many of them lifelong friends. I can teach just about anything in English as far as literature analysis and writing skills, but my main areas of teaching lie in fairy tales, adolescent literature, magical realism, expository and persuasive writing, goddess archetypes, the nature of reality, film studies, later American literature, and basic composition and literature.

Review

All of our reviews are collected by us and are 100% reliable. They correspond to a real experience lived by students with Susan.

5 (5 reviews)

L
Louis
- 5
Perfect! Perfect.
See the response from Susan Read more Read more

L
Louis
Perfect! Perfect.

Susan's response
Creativity, interest in writing and projects, and desire to organize writing plans are strengths. He is planning to take lessons when he can get the funds together.
- Susan's response : Creativity, interest in writing and projects, and desire to organize writing plans are strengths. He is planning to take lessons when he can get the funds together.
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Recommendations

Recommendations come from relatives, friends and acquaintances of the teacher

K
Kelly
Susan leads classes/workshops where she is a subject matter expert. She is obviously passionate about the topics and finds ways to shed light on themes that I would never pick up on myself. I left the session wanted more. More of the subject we discussed and more of her being there to lead the discussion.
Read more

K
Kelly
Susan leads classes/workshops where she is a subject matter expert. She is obviously passionate about the topics and finds ways to shed light on themes that I would never pick up on myself. I left the session wanted more. More of the subject we discussed and more of her being there to lead the discussion.
C
Christina
I had Susan as a professor several times throughout my college career. She knows the content she is teaching and she always makes me feel safe learning in her classroom.
She is always available to help when needed and she is kind and supportive.
One of the best teachers I have ever had.
Read more

C
Christina
I had Susan as a professor several times throughout my college career. She knows the content she is teaching and she always makes me feel safe learning in her classroom.
She is always available to help when needed and she is kind and supportive.
One of the best teachers I have ever had.
K
Kaliyah
During my years attending Wesley College, I took English classes under Professor Bobby. She was a phenomenal teacher and I would gladly take more classes under her guidance. The classes I took involved reading a short story or watching a movie and then analyzing it in our own way through essay form. This teaching style allowed students to cultivate their own ideas while also bouncing off Professor Bobby's expertise and other students thought process. It was an active and engaging learning environment. I would 100% recommend her to anyone looking for help with English writing or analyzations.
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K
Kaliyah
During my years attending Wesley College, I took English classes under Professor Bobby. She was a phenomenal teacher and I would gladly take more classes under her guidance. The classes I took involved reading a short story or watching a movie and then analyzing it in our own way through essay form. This teaching style allowed students to cultivate their own ideas while also bouncing off Professor Bobby's expertise and other students thought process. It was an active and engaging learning environment. I would 100% recommend her to anyone looking for help with English writing or analyzations.
E
Evita
This remarkable educator is a creative engineer with insurmountable knowledge and experience of diverse and multicultural literary works in folklore, fairytale, mythology, and so much more. Not only will you aquire a mastery of these literary works, but you will also obtain a new admiration for related material. Prepare to become immersed in the world of fantasy and realistic fiction all the while comprehending the history, culture, and geographical location of each work. Moreover, you will be fond of the techniques used to teach each class and the altruistic and intriguing personality of this instructor. You will have a superb experience learning and comprehending all material provided. In addition, your skills in grammar and the English language as a whole will become enhanced. Ultimately, this educator, her classes, and her expertise are highly recommended and are well deserving of a 5 star review and beyond!

Read more

E
Evita
This remarkable educator is a creative engineer with insurmountable knowledge and experience of diverse and multicultural literary works in folklore, fairytale, mythology, and so much more. Not only will you aquire a mastery of these literary works, but you will also obtain a new admiration for related material. Prepare to become immersed in the world of fantasy and realistic fiction all the while comprehending the history, culture, and geographical location of each work. Moreover, you will be fond of the techniques used to teach each class and the altruistic and intriguing personality of this instructor. You will have a superb experience learning and comprehending all material provided. In addition, your skills in grammar and the English language as a whole will become enhanced. Ultimately, this educator, her classes, and her expertise are highly recommended and are well deserving of a 5 star review and beyond!
View more recommendations

Rates

packages

5h: $150
10h: $300

webcam

$30/h

free lessons

30mins

Video

Find out more about Susan

01
When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?
I developed an interest in English when I was very young! My first word was "book" and I was an avid reader. I love English classes and writing all through school and I became an English major in college in order to continue my studies. That's also where I began to tutor privately when I was hired by the English department to tutor students taking English courses. I earned a B.A. and an M. A. in English, became a professor, and tutored students for nearly 30 years before I left higher education. I now am a freelance entrepreneur and I tutor privately and love it so much.
02
Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).
I teach English, both composition and literature. I also like to teach film. If there is anything in the field/discipline of English, I've probably taught it quite a bit already, and I love to change what I teach because I like variety. My favorite subjects tend to be adolescent literature, fairy tales, films, tv series, pop culture subjects, and creative writing. I think probably working solely on grammar is not as "exciting", but it's very necessary, and I can always find interesting ways to teach that material as well. So I would say that I enjoy teaching all aspects of English writing and literature.
03
Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?
Yes, I definitely did. My favorite teacher and role model in college was a professor in my department whose teaching style inspired me down the road. I just learned so much in his classes. He was interesting and fun to learn from but he also had high standards and that's what I am like when I teach. I am personable especially when working one-on-one and I make people feel at ease, which is what he did. Of course I was also inspired by my mom, because she was a teacher, and she even taught me in a few subjects in middle school!
04
What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?
Adaptability is a big one. Tutoring is something where you can plan for a session, but you also have to change on the spot if a particular strategy isn't working out, or if someone is struggling to understand. You also have to be able to engage someone who may not be "feeling it" that day. You have to be interesting and offer lots of examples, but those examples also have to resonate with that particular student, so getting to know the student better is key. I think knowing about a variety of approaches and having very in-depth knowledge of the subject matter is also very important. In my case, I do not have to take valuable time during a session to look things up. All the knowledge is in my head because I have so many years of expertise. So efficiency is really important, too.
05
Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.
One of my favorite anecdotes related to when I was in graduate school and I had to give a presentation. I was so nervous, and I became even more nervous when the student who went before me dropped all his notecards everywhere and had no idea what he was talking about. I had prepared my paper, of course, but I still wasn't keen on standing up in front of 40 people since I had little experience then. So when I stood up to speak, I panicked, and instead of speaking extemporaneously, I read my paper aloud. The thing is that I had revised it so many times that I was able to look up very frequently and give eye contact. Later on, I thought I would get a B at the very least, but I earned 100%!! I asked my professor about this and he said that I had delivered the paper exactly the way it is done at professional conferences. I had no idea! This is what taught me that there isn't just one way to accomplish something. Sometimes people need a variety of ways to be successful. When I became a professor students were shocked that I "let" them present that way, but it was very professional. So when I work with students in tutoring, I try to convey to them that if they learned there is only one way to do something, likely, they were taught by someone too rigid, and we can go about things another way if that works better for them.
06
What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?
Hmmm...I have done my job for so long and studied my discipline so long that I don't feel I have difficulties or challenges, but one thing that I think is a challenge concerning English in general is that too many people take it for granted, and by "people", I tend to mean administrations of schools, NOT the students themselves. What I mean by this is that often, students are interested in writing better or reading more, but they are pushed away from the humanities because they are told that they can't get a job in the humanities. Well first of all, that's not true. But also, the fact is that EVERYONE needs to be able to express themselves, orally and/or in writing, and learning to read and write well just makes us better educated and more able to understand a variety of things in the world. So I would say the challenge has been in getting administrations to care about humanities (English, art, music, etc.) and to fund this area as well as the people who teach it.
07
Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?
I love teaching!! I really do. I love to work with one-on-one teaching and small groups. I especially love to help people become better writers, interpreters of literature, film, tv, and even video game stories! Most of all, I love to help people realize that they can become storytellers themselves. Besides these interests and passions, I love to knit! I am self-taught and make lots of garments. I also am a needleworker, and of course, I love to read! My favorite book genres to read tend to be fairy-tale retellings in novel form mostly, young adult lit, fantasy, and a little bit of SciFi.
08
What makes you a Superprof (besides answering this interview questions :-P)?
Lots of things! One is that I have a tremendous amount of experience and expertise. I am a published author many times over and I have done every step of the publishing process from the inception of the idea all the way to proofing the final copy before publication. I love all steps of the writing and editing process and can help people through publishing things themselves. I also have so much experience teaching college level and high school level English that I can assist so many people in a variety of ways and I don't waste time. I'm a quick thinker and can think on my feet extremely well, so I can answer questions easily and provide so many ways to help people learn. I am also a very kind and supportive person. I am one of those people who will have a 99% success rate in general--meaning, out of 100 students, 99 will absolutely adore my work, and 1 will just not like me. Often that's more if there is a personality conflict (and this has never actually happened in a tutoring situation but has happened if I am assigned a class to teach, and often, that one student is the one who has a problem with ALL of their teachers and education in general). I am also really good at reading people. I can read body language and such even over zoom, and if someone is struggling, I can usually tell and I will find another way to explain things. Lastly, I just really want to connect with people online. This pandemic has been rough on everyone. I think sometimes just interacting with someone else online, while you are learning something and improving your skills, can be such a great boost to your mood. So these are the reasons I think I can be YOUR Superprof!! (Plus the questions here were great, too!)

Retired English professor with 27 years of experience teaching literature analysis, writing, and literature appreciation, with a special focus in the areas of fairy tales and adolescent literature.

Super Prof

About the lesson

subjects

languages

levels

About Susan

Review

Recommendations

Rates

packages

webcam

free lessons

Video

Find out more about Susan

When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

What makes you a Superprof (besides answering this interview questions :-P)?

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