Writing
Tutoring
The English tutors are here to help you develop your writing skills for success in VCC courses and in your life. Tutors at all Learning Centre locations work one-on-one with students in face-to-face communication and via instant messenger to help you:
- understand your teacher's marking
- find the best way to express an idea
- focus on a way to improve your next assignment
- clarify your ideas
- understand your writing problems and how you can improve
- find a useful writing book in our collection.
We support self-directed learning. To help you develop your editing skills, we do not proofread for you but we help you learn how to do it yourself. We can also help you learn how to evaluate your own work.
How The Learning Centre Tutors Help with Writing
Tutors can help you with your VCC course work by:
- reviewing marked assignments so you can revise and improve your writing
- reviewing parts of your writing by answering specific questions
- listening to and discussing your ideas
- helping you make a writing plan
- directing you to useful resources to improve editing and writing skills
- providing feedback on your resume and cover letter
You can help yourself by:
- asking instructors to explain assignments and course expectations
- doing original work without copying others' (plagiarism)
- developing your own ideas
- learning to find grammar mistakes and editing your writing
NOTE: Tutors do not provide ideas, find grammar mistakes, edit or evaluate writing.
Study Resources
To help you with your writing, we have a number of textbooks and worksheets available at each Learning Centre. As well, the Library's subject guides in Literature & Humanities have many resources that you may find useful.
Links
| Purdue Online Writing Lab | Worksheets to help improve your writing skills, including many aimed at ESL learners |
| The UVic Writer's Guide | Easily-understood information on all aspects of advanced and university-level writing. |
| Writing About Literature | Very complete guide to writing about literature, by the Norton Introduction to Literature people. In-depth discussions about documentation; critical approaches; writing about the genres; and the stages of writing. |
| Bellevue Community College Writing Lab | Writing lab guides to writing and grammar. |
Worksheets
Also look in the ESL section for more worksheets.
| Topic | Worksheet Title | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Composition | Ideas for Compositions | Broadway |
| Composition | Journal Starters | Broadway |
| Composition | My Family (Practice Essay) | Broadway |
| Composition | My Place (Practice Essay) | Broadway |
| Essays | Biography Research Project | Broadway |
| Essays | Essay - Argument | Broadway |
| Essays | Essay - Definition | Broadway |
| Essays | Essay Outline | Broadway |
| Essays | Essay Writing Checklist | Downtown |
| Essays | Guidelines for Editing an Essay | Broadway |
| Essays | Outlining & Sample Essay Outline | Broadway |
| Essays | Practice Essay Topics | Broadway |
| Essays | Sample Student Essay | Broadway |
| Essays | Starting an Essay Outline | Broadway |
| Essays | The Essay: Parts & Function | Broadway |
| Essays | The Research Paper | Broadway |
| Essays | The Thesis Statement | Broadway |
| Essays | TOWER - Building Writing Skills | Broadway |
| Essays | Understanding Assignment Titles | Downtown |
| Essays | Writing a Summary | Broadway |
| Essays | Writing an Essay | Broadway |
| Grammar | Adjective Clauses | Broadway |
| Grammar | Adjective Clauses (A) | Broadway |
| Grammar | Adjective Order | Broadway |
| Grammar | Adjectives and Adverbs - More Practice | Broadway |
| Grammar | Adverbs | Broadway |
| Grammar | Appositives | Broadway |
| Grammar | Articles (Answer Key) | Broadway |
| Grammar | Articles: Exercise 32 | Broadway |
| Grammar | Changes in Verb Tenses | Broadway |
| Grammar | Common Irregular Verbs | Broadway |
| Grammar | Conditionals | Broadway |
| Grammar | Conjunctions | Broadway |
| Grammar | Definite Articles | Broadway |
| Grammar | Definite Articles in Place Names | Broadway |
| Grammar | Gerund Phrase Objects | Broadway |
| Grammar | How to Make Questions | Broadway |
| Grammar | How to Make Questions with "Be" Verb | Broadway |
| Grammar | Indefinite Articles and No Article | Broadway |
| Grammar | More Subject-Verb Agreement | Broadway |
| Grammar | Prepositions | Broadway |
| Grammar | Prepositions used with Certain Verbs | Broadway |
| Grammar | Recognizing Passive | Broadway |
| Grammar | Recognizing Passive Relationships | Broadway |
| Grammar | Subject/Verb Agreement | Broadway |
| Grammar | Subject-Verb Agreement | Broadway |
| Grammar | Summary Chart of Verb Tenses | Broadway |
| Grammar | The Parts of Speech in English | Broadway |
| Letters | Business Letter Format | Broadway |
| Letters | Personal Letter Format #1 | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Descriptive Paragraphs | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Desiriptive Paragraphs - Describe a Person | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Expository Paragraphs | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Expository Paragraphs - Explaining How-To | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Grammar Checklist | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Model Paragraph & The Topic Sentence | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Narrative Paragraphs | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Paragraphs | Broadway |
| Paragraphs | Writing a Paragraph | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech Exercise | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Adjectives | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Adverbs | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Articles | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Conjunctions | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Definitions | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Interjections | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Nouns | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Prepositions | Broadway |
| Parts of Speech | Parts of Speech: Verbs | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Apostrophes and Posessives | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Comma Review | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Commas | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Commas (C-35) | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Commas (C-36) | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Commas (C-37) | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Commas (C-38) | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Diagnostic Test | Broadway |
| Punctuation | End Punctuation | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Identifying Sentences | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Possessives and Apostrophes | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Possessives and Apostrophes (2) | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: Capital Letters | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: Italics, Underline, & Quotations | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: More Uses of the Comma | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: Parentheses, Brackets, Ellipsis | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: The Apostrophe | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: The Colon | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: The Comma | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: The Hyphen and the Dash | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: The Period, Question, and Exclamation Marks | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: The Semicolon | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Punctuation: When Not to Use the Comma | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Quotation Marks | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Sentence Unity | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Using Apostrophes to Show Contractions | Broadway |
| Punctuation | Using Apostrophes to Show Posession | Broadway |
| Sentences | Clauses: Classifying Sentences by Structure | Broadway |
| Sentences | Combining Sentences | Broadway |
| Sentences | Fragments | Broadway |
| Sentences | Fragments Review #2 | Broadway |
| Sentences | Fragments: Fragments Review #1 | Broadway |
| Sentences | Kinds of Sentences | Broadway |
| Sentences | Run-On Sentences | Broadway |
| Sentences | Sentence Combining - Adjective Clauses | Broadway |
| Sentences | Sentence Combining - Complex Sentences | Broadway |
| Sentences | Sentence Combining - Compound and Complex | Broadway |
| Sentences | Sentence Combining - Compound Sentences | Broadway |
| Sentences | Sentence Problems | Broadway |
| Sentences | Sentence Problems #2 | Broadway |
| Sentences | Sentence Word Order #1 | Broadway |
| Sentences | Sentence Word Order #2 | Broadway |
| Sentences | Word Order | Broadway |
| Spelling | Alphabetical List of Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes | Broadway |
| Spelling | Alphabetical Order | Broadway |
| Spelling | Beginning /k/ | Broadway |
| Spelling | ch or tch and List of Words | Broadway |
| Spelling | Diagnostic Test | Broadway |
| Spelling | Dictionary Skills - Pronunciation | Broadway |
| Spelling | End /k/ | Broadway |
| Spelling | Hard and Soft Sounds of C | Broadway |
| Spelling | Hard and Soft Sounds of G | Broadway |
| Spelling | Mastery Test: A. Prefixes & Suffixes | Broadway |
| Spelling | Mastery Test: Apostrophes | Broadway |
| Spelling | Mastery Test: Capitalization | Broadway |
| Spelling | Mastery Test: Homophones | Broadway |
| Spelling | Mastery Test: IE & EI | Broadway |
| Spelling | Mastery Test: Plurals | Broadway |
| Spelling | Mastery Test: Spelling & the Dictionary | Broadway |
| Spelling | More Plurals - Words ending in y | Broadway |
| Spelling | More Plurals -s or es? | Broadway |
| Spelling | Patterns of /k/ | Broadway |
| Spelling | Plurals ending in F, FE, O, Irregular | Broadway |
| Spelling | Practice for Adding Sufixes | Broadway |
| Spelling | Silent Consonants | Broadway |
| Spelling | Spelling Demons | Broadway |
| Spelling | Spelling Notes | Broadway |
| Spelling | Suffix Practice: Final Consonant Rule | Broadway |
| Spelling | Suffix Practice: Final E Suffix Rule | Broadway |
| Spelling | Suffix Practice: Final Y Rule | Broadway |
| Spelling | Suffix Review - Advanced | Broadway |
| Spelling | Suffix Review: Adding -ing | Broadway |
| Spelling | Suffix Rules | Broadway |
| Spelling | Syllables | Broadway |
| Spelling | Tricky Patterns of /k/ and /j/ | Broadway |
| Spelling | Words with ie and ei | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Adjective or Adverb | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Advanced Vocabulary Test | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Homonyms 1 | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Homonyms 2 | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Homonyms 3 | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Tips for Learning Vocabulary | Downtown |
| Vocabulary | Vocabulary Improvement | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Vocabulary Placement Test | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Word Study: Affixes & Roots | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Word Study: Derivations | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Words Often Misspelled | Broadway |
| Vocabulary | Words Often Misused | Broadway |