Residential College Writing Tutors, also known as Bass Writing Tutors, work in the residential colleges—you’ve probably met your college’s tutor during the freshman dinner or fireside chats with the Head or Dean. Many of them are professional writers, most have taught writing courses at Yale or other colleges, and all of them have worked with Yale students for many years. Tutors are familiar with papers from freshman and sophomore courses and have helped students from every department with junior and senior essays.
Make an appointment with your college’s Writing Tutor.
Hours and Locations
Tutoring sessions are by appointment.
| College | Office | Tutor |
| Benjamin Franklin (BF) | BF 024 LL | Lesley Finn |
| Berkeley (BK) | Entry I, 040 | Cathy Shufro |
| Branford (BR) | 207 | Rosemary Jones |
| Davenport (DC) | N13 | Lincoln Caplan |
| Ezra Stiles (ES) | L04 | Alison Moncrief-Bromage |
| Grace Hopper (GH) | 24 | Andrew Ehrgood |
| Jonathan Edwards (JE) | L22 | Kate Hunter |
| Morse (MC) | Entry I, 117 | Derek Green |
| Pauli Murray (MY) | BF 023 LL | Pamela Newton |
| Pierson (PC) | Margaret Spillane | |
| Silliman (SM) | 401 | Betsy Sledge |
| Saybrook (SY) | P-11 | Whitney Rakich |
| Trumbull (TC) | 29 | Adam Sexton |
| Timothy Dwight (TD) | K10 | Barbara Riley |
Eligibility
Residential College Writing Tutors work with Yale College undergraduates. See Graduate Writing Consultations if you are a graduate student needing assistance.
Preparing for Your Session
- Make an appointment with your college’s Writing Tutor.
- Carefully read the confirmation email, as each tutor offers slightly different instructions about preparing for appointments.
What to Expect
Many tutors will read your paper in advance, although a few prefer that you do that work together. Either way, most sessions will start with the tutor asking you what you hope to accomplish, which might include questions about the assignment or a discussion of your experience writing similar papers. The tutor will then discuss the most important areas for revision. Tutors won’t tell you exactly what to do to fix your essay, but they will help you figure out strategies for revision and prompt you to take notes on the suggestions that arise. Often the most important changes involve the primary claims of the paper or the structure of your argument.
Writing Tutors can also help you with grammar and style, although not by proofreading your whole essay; instead, the two of you might edit a paragraph together, looking for suggestions that you can then incorporate into the rest of your paper.
If you have worked with the same tutor before, there will be more time to discuss general trends in your writing, or to work quickly through basic concerns and move on to specific needs of the current paper. One benefit of the Residential College Writing Tutors is the opportunity to work over several years with someone who knows your writing well.