Tutor Toolbox: Dos & Don'ts

What Tutors Cannot Do

• Tutoring is not a homework or editing service. 
• Tutors should not give students answers or do their work for them. 
• Tutors cannot help with online and/or take-home quizzes/tests/exams unless instructions explicitly state that tutors can help with these assignments.
• Disagree with the professor's assignment guidelines 
• Allow the student to passively listen as you lecture

What Tutors Can Do

• Tutors can assist students with the learning process by doing such things as asking them questions, helping to explain difficult concepts, demonstrating the processes they would use to complete an assignment or prepare for a test, quizzing them, and modeling good study habits.
• Tutors can suggest new strategies, techniques, and tips to help students improve academically. Often, what students have been doing is not working as well as they would like, so it’s time to try something different.
• Tutors can offer different ways to learn, study, or complete an assignment. 
• Tutors can offer advice on how to read more effectively and efficiently.
• Tutors can offer suggestions on how to improve your notes from lecture.
• Tutors can help students see the relevance of what you are studying.
• Tutors can share resources that they have found helpful personally or for other students with whom they have worked.
• Follow the professor's assignment guidelines
• Have the student be an active participant in the lesson

Check out these terrible tutoring sessions to learn what NOT to do!

Check out these funny examples of poor workplace ethics: