JS TS #8 (Sofia)

 Julia TS #8 (Sofia) 


Date/Time: Wednesday, February 11th, 2026 4-5 pm 


Location: Virtual (Zoom) 


Topic/Skill: Emailing a Professor / Writing


Feedback Provided to the Tutee: In this session, I provided Sofia with a TOEFL-style writing question, in which she has to read specific instructions and send her professor an email based on the scenario given. We then went over a sample answer and analyzed what they did that made the response so high-scoring. I then told her to use the notes we created about the sample high-scoring response and apply them to another TOEFL-style email question. I encouraged her to use specific phrases for clarity and politeness, and we worked on the passive voice with phrases like “I am writing because…” or “I was wondering if it was possible,” and on knowing when to use each one. 


Lesson(s) About Tutoring and/or the Tutee: I was once again reminded of the subtle differences that the phrasing of a couple of words can make in the meaning or how an email is received. I learned how, in some ways, linguistic support, or in this case an example of a sample response, can be helpful but also act as a hindrance when the tutee is unsure about their response and tries to copy the format too much. I learned about the delicate balance between using linguistic support and examples to help students and not wanting to overwhelm them or stunt their creative process when they are writing. 

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