Writing Tutor: coach writers | The Future Market

01

The writing tutor's job, and what feedback research shows

In simple words

A football coach does not run onto the field and kick the ball. They watch, point out one thing to fix, and let the player try again. A writing tutor helps the writer improve, but the writer does the writing.

Before this course: Research Writing: long papers (course 13.13.3). You can already plan a long paper backwards, write a synthesis-based literature review, use numbers carefully, match claims to evidence and revise in passes. Before that you learned claims, evidence, counterarguments and revising big things first (course 13.13.2). Now you coach other writers. Lines marked "Tip" are practical advice, not research findings.

Key facts

Graham, Hebert and Harris (2015, Elementary School Journal) combined true and quasi-experiments on formative assessment in writing for students in Grades 1 to 8. Feedback improved writing quality from every source they studied:

Feedback from	Average effect
Adults	0.87
Self (self-assessment)	0.62
Peers	0.58
Computers	0.38

In the same analysis, teachers' progress monitoring and the 6 + 1 Trait Writing model did not meaningfully improve students' writing.
Limits: these are averages from school students in Grades 1 to 8. They show that feedback tends to help, not that every comment helps every writer.
Three roles (our own):

Role	Main job	Danger sign
Writing tutor	Helps the writer see and fix the most important problems themselves	The tutor talks more than the writer
Editor	Fixes the text so it is ready to publish	Fine for a published book; not allowed for most graded schoolwork
Teacher or marker	Sets the task and grades it	A tutor should not predict or promise a grade

Higher-order concerns first (course 13.13.2): purpose, thesis, argument, organisation and evidence come before sentences, grammar and format.

Step by step

Write your role in one sentence: "I help writers find and fix the most important problems in their own drafts."
Write one sentence on what feedback research shows and one on its limits.
List three things you will not do, for example "write sentences the writer will hand in" or "predict a grade".
List the higher-order concerns and the later-order concerns as two columns.
Read one old draft (yours or a volunteer's) and mark one higher-order and one later-order issue.
Check: your role statement makes clear that the writer, not you, does the writing.

Watch on YouTube

Writing center: sample consultationIU Southeast · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01The writing tutor's job, and what feedback research shows

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "A writing tutor is a coach, not a ghostwriter."
[Text on screen: adults 0.87, self 0.62, peers 0.58, computers 0.38] "A meta-analysis of school writing found feedback from adults, peers, the writer themself and computers all improved writing quality on average."
[Screen: two columns, higher-order and later-order concerns] "Start with the big things: purpose, argument, organisation, evidence. Commas can wait."
[Host] "Your job is to help writers see their own drafts more clearly."

Try it now

Write a one-page tutor statement: your role, what research shows and its limits, your three "I will not" lines, and your two columns of concerns.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Writing Tutor: coach writers" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "The writing tutor's job, and what feedback research shows".

What the lesson teaches:
- Graham, Hebert and Harris (2015, Elementary School Journal) combined true and quasi-experiments on formative assessment in writing for students in Grades 1 to 8. Feedback improved writing quality from every source they studied:
- Feedback from - Average effect
- Adults - 0.87
- Self (self-assessment) - 0.62
- Peers - 0.58
- Computers - 0.38
- In the same analysis, teachers' progress monitoring and the 6 + 1 Trait Writing model did not meaningfully improve students' writing.

The exercise I'm working on:
Write a one-page tutor statement: your role, what research shows and its limits, your three "I will not" lines, and your two columns of concerns.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "The writing tutor's job, and what feedback research shows" from the course "Writing Tutor: coach writers".

Here's what the lesson says:
A football coach does not run onto the field and kick the ball. They watch, point out one thing to fix, and let the player try again. A writing tutor helps the writer improve, but the writer does the writing.

The activity:
Write a one-page tutor statement: your role, what research shows and its limits, your three "I will not" lines, and your two columns of concerns.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

Graham, S., Hebert, M., & Harris, K. R. (2015). Formative assessment and writing: A meta-analysis. The Elementary School Journal, 115(4), 523-547: doi.org/10.1086/681947 (ERIC record: eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1068976)

My notes

I learned this

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