The Gilliam Writers Group is a small cohort of skilled writers and editors who love to teach. We offer writing tutoring for every humanities subject (history, the social sciences, philosophy, etc.), specializing in English literature and the language arts. We also tutor students who want to improve their writing in the S.T.E.M. fields.

Week by week, our students enjoy private academic writing classes and essay writing classes designed with their needs in mind. Whether we’re building lessons around specific school assignments or creating them from scratch, we are committed to delivering rigorous, high-quality (and fun!) learning experiences to everyone we work with. That’s why we hire the best online writing tutors in the business.

Our faculty is composed of experienced instructors, successful authors, and distinguished graduates and professors from the world’s top academic programs. We’re not just experts in the craft of writing; we’re students of educational theory. As professional writing tutors, we work continually to improve our teaching skills for the digital environment, developing philosophically grounded, research-supported pedagogical strategies that address the nuances of language, thought, and composition.

The Gilliam Writers Group sees itself as a necessary response to concerning trends in youth literacy and general education in America today; our company represents what we hope will become a paradigm shift in the way that reading and writing are taught, and valued, in this country. Schools increasingly neglect to teach students the essential building blocks of language—tools we believe are essential for a productive, engaged life in today’s information-saturated world.

Because we teach mainly online, our services are available anywhere there’s internet; no matter where you live, you can find a writing or essay tutor with the Gilliam Writers Group. Many of our students and faculty are based in metropolitan centers including New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and London.

Across academic disciplines and age groups, GWG emphasizes writing and letters as the focus of our instruction. Every academic writing specialist on our faculty has worked with students of diverse interests, educational backgrounds, and skill sets. Our youngest students are eight years old, while our oldest are adult learners; we tutor elementary, middle, and high schoolers, as well as college undergraduates and university graduate students.

As mentioned above, the Gilliam Writers Group’s education services are primarily virtual; though working with a writing tutor near you can be rewarding, we’ve found that our online writing lessons provide an equally (or even more) effective learning experience—not despite, but because of their digital format. Meeting on Zoom and Google Docs allows us to engage with written text in a uniquely organic, cooperative way; by collaborating on cloud-based documents, our tutors can shift seamlessly between dialogue and demonstration, idea and experiment, critique and revision. The virtual environment introduces real immediacy into the teaching process, making it possible for us to intervene in students’ work more naturally than we could in a physical setting.

Accordingly, our online writing tutors can mark up each student’s work with them right there in the moment, while we are teaching them how to improve it (rather than delivering feedback asynchronously, as most teachers have to). We can observe their writing process in real time, providing interactive pointers on technique that snowball into entirely new lessons. We can instantly demonstrate the writing, research, and thinking skills we want our students to learn—all without the awkwardness of peering over each other’s shoulders or passing notebooks back and forth.

The Gilliam Writers Group favors inquiry-based, dialogical lesson structures that encourage the learner to take an active role in steering their own course of study, sparking self-directed exploration. On weeks when our students don’t have to focus on schoolwork or other pressing assignments, we often structure their lessons around two-part “modules”: custom academic writing classes in which the pupil spends half the time reading, annotating, and discussing a text (or pair of texts) under the guidance of their instructor, and the other half drafting responses to a series of analytical prompts about the material at hand.

To make the most of every hour, the texts our tutors choose for annotation and analysis are usually brief; poems, articles, and short stories are popular. If the student has been assigned a book to read for school, or if they simply prefer to unpack a longer text over the course of multiple sessions, their instructor will select a specific passage or excerpt to focus on during each one. (When teaching more technical subjects like grammar, spelling, or sentence mechanics, we build lessons around a curated selection of workbooks and textbooks.) No student at GWG follows the exact same series of readings as another; because our faculty work as private writing tutors, we have the freedom to design each student’s curriculum from scratch, adapting it lesson by lesson to exploit their evolving capacities, interests, and learning history.

After the focused writing period at the heart of our “module-style” lessons, our instructors generally ask students to read their initial responses out loud. We then prompt them to clarify and deepen their arguments on the page, providing thorough editorial feedback—including mini-lessons on syntax, grammar, etc.—where necessary. In this way, slowly but surely, GWG’s writing courses impart critical thinking and communication skills that support our students’ long-term growth.

On the whole, our teaching methodology balances individual responsiveness with structural continuity. Each writing tutoring session we facilitate becomes a collaborative exploration of rhetorical craft, so that the student is not just completing assigned tasks, but truly learning how to synthesize, analyze, and—perhaps most importantly—make use of complicated information. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that, through their work with us, they are building mental habits that they—and we—can be proud of.

We approach research and essay writing as a disciplined, systematic process, an act of inquiry that is driven by curiosity yet shaped by a clear purpose. Because good papers start with good questions, our online essay writing tutors ensure that every student knows how to craft specific, open-ended research prompts capable of sustaining meaningful exploration over time. We also teach tools and techniques for locating, evaluating, and organizing sources throughout the research process, providing strategies for assessing credibility, distinguishing between primary and secondary materials, and maintaining orderly bibliographies with citation management software.

The thesis statement serves as the foundation and guiding principle for all academic essays, and our tutoring services reflect this. Gilliam’s essay writing coaches teach that a well-crafted thesis should be clear, concise, and debatable, and that its purpose is to anchor the essay’s argument. It is a “compass” that promotes focus and coherence between paragraphs. By breaking the thesis into its core components—argument, reasoning, and key terms—during online writing lessons with us, our students come to see how it should determine the overall structure of their work (namely, by linking each supporting claim to the essay’s central claim). They apply this insight to their outlines and drafts by improving each paragraph’s alignment with the thesis over multiple rounds of revision.

All in all, we teach a process-oriented approach to writing essays: great papers, in our view, emerge from deliberate planning and effort, and cannot be completed in a night. Our lessons thereby emphasize repeatable prewriting techniques like brainstorming, outlining, and freewriting, which help students generate and organize ideas while combatting beginners’ inertia. We also teach time management skills for longer-term assignments, showing our students how to set milestones, develop writing schedules, and hold themselves accountable. Reflective practices like process journals and post-writing reflections foster further self-awareness and growth. In this way, GWG’s essay writing classes break once-dreaded assignments into manageable, habitual stages, with iterative drafting and revision normalized as essential steps. Our attention to process shifts students’ focus from perfection to improvement, from output to experience. We find this makes academic writing less stressful, and more enjoyable, for the many young people we work with.

In a similar vein, our essay writing tutors aim to show students that originality thrives within frameworks, that academic conventions are tools for clarity and creativity rather than arbitrary constraints. By mastering traditional forms like the five-paragraph essay, our students gain the confidence to innovate where it counts, exploring variations in structure and style that meaningfully amplify their arguments. We also encourage precision over aesthetics in academic writing; for us, word limits are not enemies, but opportunities—usefully bounded containers in which to cultivate new ideas. By showcasing examples of successful originality while celebrating our students’ attempts to innovate, Gilliam’s online essay writing classes instill a growth mindset that redefines formal rigor as a path to creativity.

Additionally, our essay tutors stress clarity and audience awareness throughout the research and drafting process, favoring works that balance accessibility with intellectual sophistication.

Strong literacy skills are the foundation of academic success and personal development in today’s information-heavy world. Whether they're mastering the basics or tackling advanced competencies, we are committed to fostering long-term literacy for every student we work with.

We understand that every student’s literacy journey is unique. That’s why we take a customized approach to tutoring for reading and writing: to meet the specific needs of each individual we work with. Whether we are helping young students with reading comprehension or designing adult reading and writing classes for older learners, our tutors deliver tailored lessons that empower growth at every level.

Though our online reading and writing tutoring sessions are defined by personalization and flexibility, we do not compromise on effective educational methods. Using interactive platforms, the Gilliam Writers Group offers collaborative, real-time learning experiences that bring high-quality teaching directly to your home. Our lessons' virtual format ensures you can access expert guidance no matter where you are.

At GWG, we enjoy helping students master subjects central to English literacy, such as phonics, grammar, reading comprehension, and sentence mechanics. Our spelling and writing tutors work closely with students and clients of various ages to strengthen their grasp of these technical fundamentals. By addressing both the foundational and advanced skill sets appropriate to a given learner's level, we expand their abilities in lasting ways.

We also work with people who are no longer in school but who still want to improve their literacy. Our reading and writing tutors for adults create supportive, judgment-free learning environments online. We are qualified to deliver age-appropriate educational interventions to a wide range of clients, from English reading and writing classes for multilingual individuals to professional communications courses for those seeking to advance their careers. Our services help adult learners achieve their goals with respect and care.

Book a free consultation call with the Gilliam Writers Group to find a reading and writing tutor today, and launch your journey toward literacy. Together, we’ll make you (or your child) a more capable reader and writer, broadening horizons and opening doors along the way.

Strong language skills are essential for effective communication, academic success, and personal expression. At GWG, our tutors can provide instruction in basic grammar and vocabulary skills, as well as in advanced writing techniques.

We offer custom lessons for students seeking focused support in areas beyond standard essay writing, including grammar classes, vocabulary-building classes, creative writing workshops, advanced ESL/ESOL instruction for multilingual students, and more. The Gilliam Writers Group is experienced in breaking down complex language rules into accessible, practical units of study; our writing tutors online can double as grammar coaches or provide instruction in niche stylistic conventions, particular types of technical writing, etc. Let us know your requirements, and we’ll tailor our lessons accordingly.

Special topics-focused sessions are ideal for a wide range of learners, from students in need of foundational grammar tutoring to advanced academic writers who want to refine their style for specific forms or genres.