Joseph Scull

Typically we will begin a course of sessions with a general conversation about where you are with your English learning so far, where you want to be, and which areas you feel require most improvement. This conversation also serves as an opportunity for us to get to know one another; from past experience I have found that tutorials are most successful when they operate as a dialogue based on a friendly relationship rather than a stiffer teacher/student hierarchy. The first session can then move to some general exercises (reading comprehensions, unseen analyses of poems or excerpts of drama/prose) as well as wider discussions of features such as genre, imagery, sentence construction and literary tropes, while we work to assess your level.

In future sessions I will then be able to provide detailed lesson plans, including exercises based upon the particular curriculum from which you are working – whether that is at a GCSE, A-Level, university admission, or undergraduate standard.

I am also happy to mark your work done outside tutorial sessions, giving feedback which we can then discuss together.

While exam-oriented study should and will likely comprise a significant proportion of our focus and time, I believe that work outside of defined syllabuses is very important, especially in a subject as wide-ranging as English. Therefore, in order both to make the sessions as enjoyable as possible and to cultivate a wider appreciation for the history and context of English language and literature, we will frequently turn to material outside of curricula.