As a writing tutor in Boston I try to keep track of various resources that give advice on writing. One thing I've noticed is that, more often than not, advice on writing takes the form of rules.

Often these are lists of rules. If you google "writing advice" you'll come up with Walter Benjamin's "13 Theses on Writing," Henry Miller's "11 Commandments of Writing," David Ogilvy's "10 No-bullshit Tips on Writing," Kurt Vonnegut's "8 Rules For a Great Story," Zadie Smith's "10 Rules of Writing," Stephen Greenblatt's "10 Rules and a Desire," and on and on and on. Making a list of writing rules seems like practically its own genre now, alongside the short story, the novel, and the essay.

In the last blog post, I discussed the overall strategy for writing the SAT essay, which is based on recognizing that this essay is not like other pieces of writing. It is specifically designed to test your ability to pick a point of view on any given issue, develop it and express it with good language skills, and to do so quickly, with little time to plan or revise. Now that we're clear on what the essay is (and is not) designed to show, we can talk about SAT verbal tips and some specific tactics you can use to write the essay.

A private tutor can be a great way to improve your writing, or your scores on standardized tests. A tutor can give you new techniques and tips you weren't aware of, point things out to you that you wouldn't have noticed, give you good practice exercises, and generally help with your discipline and motivation in writing or standardized test prep.