How To Become A Writing Tutor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a writing tutor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Christopher Hanson,

Karen Chandler Ph.D.

Writing is a skill that comes with lots of practice and, sometimes, natural talent. Not everyone is born with an innate flair for putting ideas on paper, which is why writing tutors exist to bridge that gap. A writing tutor helps students and professionals become better writers by teaching them proper writing techniques, grammar, syntax, and composition.

The duties of a writing tutor revolve around teaching individuals how to write better. This process involves checking students' work, providing writing samples, giving writing assignments, and helping students work through their difficulties.

If you want to become a writing tutor, you would have to be a capable writer yourself. Having a degree in communication, journalism, English, or other relevant fields is also a great advantage and is often a minimum requirement for most employers. Furthermore, you must have adequate experience in writing as well as teaching others how to write to strengthen your candidacy.

A writing tutor can earn anywhere between $26,000 to $60,000 a year, but the average is around $40,000. You can either work as a freelancer and offer private services to students or work under a company or educational institution full-time.

What general advice would you give to a writing tutor?

Christopher Hanson

Assistant Professor of Music, Director of Music Education and Orchestral Activities, Seattle Pacific University

Keep asking questions and look for opportunities to engage in teaching and learning wherever you can. Connect with peers and future colleagues. Do not just wait. Now is the time to create and sustain dialog on educational change. Although there are endless numbers of variables to how, when, what, and with whom we learn, our genuine curiosity and sincere desire to engage others in the educative process is our greatest hope to see education in a better place than it was before the pandemic.

We must heed the call of innovation and encourage a transition from our current state of triage and survival. You, as a recent graduate, are the future of what education will be. Ask yourself, what will the world look like that you will help create? Is this a world that you and others can learn in? What more can you do to secure the possibilities and promise of education for all? These are the questions that will fuel change and secure growth through the inevitable vicissitudes of education.

ScoreWriting TutorUS Average

Salary

2.0

Avg. Salary $25,557

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

3.9

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.50%

Asian 8.87%

Black or African American 9.96%

Hispanic or Latino 16.13%

Unknown 5.87%

White 58.67%

Gender

female 66.72%

male 33.28%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

3.9

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

9.4

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a writing tutor

Explore writing tutor education requirements

Most common writing tutor degrees

Bachelor's

75.1 %

Master's

11.1 %

Associate

8.8 %

Start to develop specific writing tutor skills

Skills	Percentages
Proper Grammar	16.69%
Writing Process	15.15%
ESL	7.91%
Literature	6.44%
MLA	5.19%

Complete relevant writing tutor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New writing tutors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a writing tutor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real writing tutor resumes.

Research writing tutor duties and responsibilities

Facilitate workshop and lead discussions on poetry, fction, and non-fction.
Manage organization events and branding via Facebook, print and university website.
Provide exceptional knowledge of language, grammar, and composition in order to assist international students to achieve academic excellence.
Tutor incoming freshmen in research and writing including grammar, syntax, style, APA and MLA citation styles

Prepare your writing tutor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your writing tutor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a writing tutor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable writing tutor resume templates

Build a professional writing tutor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your writing tutor resume.