During the fall semester, you will be able to seek assistance from Ms. Juanita Long, the language arts tutor in the Learning Assistance Center (D330).  Her telephone number is 766-6720.  You may use tutors on other FCCJ campuses, but you will need to call, or go by, those centers to find our their tutors' hours.

Ms. Long will be in the center for the following hours:

Monday -- 9:15 a.m. till 5:15 p.m.
Tuesday -- 11 a.m. till 10 p.m.
Wednesday -- 9:15 a.m. till 5:15 p.m.
Thursday -- 9:15 a.m. till 5:15 p.m.
Friday -- 9 a.m. till 3 p.m.

Her lunch break occurs at 12:15 p.m.

The math and English tutor alternate on keeping the LAC open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  If you want to come on the weekend, you may wish to call the lab to check on which tutor is on duty.

What will the tutor do for you (and NOT do)?

English instructors do not want the tutor to be used as a proof-reading service, so you may not drop off a paper and then pick it up later.  You will have to be physically present when the tutor review is going on.

Even with you conferring with the tutor, it is still your responsibility to find your own errors.  The tutor may spot that you are having trouble with, say, subject-verb agreement and verb forms.  The tutor may go over the fact that we say/write, "I go, you go, she goes, we go, you go, they go."  Once the rule has been pointed out, you will need to check the other areas of agreement in your paper.

If you are still troubled and confused about a point of grammar or usage, the tutor may direct you to one of the PLATO computer-assisted lessons.

If you bring a paper to the tutor filled with misspellings that a spell-checker could catch, then the tutor has the right to ask you to bring a revised paper back once you have done the spell-check.

A tutor (or instructor) may circle any words that have been easily confused ("to, too, two," "their, there, they're," etc.) since a computer spell-check would not spot them.

For Denson's classes, the tutor is asked to look only at papers that are in a typed form.  If you still have a paper that is handwritten, the tutor or instructor may give an impression of whether you are on the right track.  (You may even be asked to read aloud the opening paragraph--or whatever section you are worried about.

Just as there are liberal, moderate, and conservative Democrats (and Republicans, etc.), you will find different opinions about usage.  At times, the tutor and instructor may disagree about a point of usage.  In addition, at other times, an instructor may change his or her mind about a sentence after reading it on Monday and seeing it again on Friday.

However, good writing is always rewriting, and our writing improves when we put our thoughts on paper, think about the message, and then see if others are seeing what we intended to say.