Leon Khoury

Leon is a practicing poet and essayist with 8 years of teaching and tutoring experience. His current projects include Apprehension, a manuscript of poems, and an untitled prose monograph that considers vocalizations of other-inclusion as self-making in American elegiac poetry. He enjoys helping young people find their voices in writing and learn testing skills that will sustain their educational journeys.

  • Profile

    Poet, memoirist, instructor. Tutor for the SAT and ACT, creative writing, critical writing, personal statements, application essays, rhetoric, public speaking, ESL, scholarly writing, literary criticism and analysis. Literary editor.

  • Areas of Expertise

    English, Irish, Caribbean, and American Literature

    Spanish Literature—Andalucían poetry

    Poetry Writing

    Memoir and Essay Writing

    College Essay/Personal Statement

    SAT and ACT Reading and Writing

    Composition and Academic English Usage

    Vocabulary and Etymology

    Rhetoric and Structure

    Poetry and History of the Middle East

    Teaching English as a Second Language

  • Education

    Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing

    University of Oregon

    Bachelor of Arts, Creative Writing, English Literature, and Middle Eastern and North African Studies

    Oberlin College

    Additional coursework, Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing

     University of East Anglia

    Additional Coursework, Spanish

    Universidad de Granada

    Celta English Teaching Certification

  • Language Proficiencies

    English: Native

    Spanish: C1 , between “proficient” and “fluent”

    Arabic: A2, “beginner”

Letter to Parents and Prospective Tutees

Dear Parents and Students,

         Thank you for considering me in your search for a standardized test and writing tutor. I enjoy working with students of all learning and cultural backgrounds, drawing techniques and approaches from my diverse pedagogical training to suit the needs of the person in front of me. Previously, I have taught and tutored writing at the undergraduate, secondary, and elementary levels; online, I have tutored college, postgraduate, and high school students and have instructed undergraduate creative writing courses. My students have ranged from fellowship-winning journalists and poets to recipients of special education and new immigrants to the United States—that is to say, I have the experience to meet your needs as you present them to me.

As a former National Merit Scholar myself, I am thoroughly familiar with SAT and ACT processes. During my years as a tutor in Oberlin, my high-school students (who all took the ACT) improved an average of 4 points after a month’s work with me. My standardized test and essay-writing tutees have been accepted into Ivy League schools and prestigious liberal arts colleges, among them Tufts University, Brown University, Columbia University, and Howard University, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Other students of mine have received considerable merit aid: some are Top Scholars at the University of South Carolina—equivalent to Stamps Scholars at the University of Oregon—who enjoy full scholarships and additional stipends of $10-30,000 per year, others have received named scholarships at liberal arts colleges including Oberlin and Smith College. I have helped many more simply to gain admission to their state’s flagship university.

All of that is to say: if a student needs training in foundational English grammatical skills, I am excited to help shepherd them through the basics, but I am equally prepared to discuss the finer points of Classical rhetoric with a precocious young scholar. With each student, all the work I offer scaffolds a skill or mentality, building foundational writing processes, discipline, and appropriate levels of confidence. My goal is not to train headstrong, inflexible writers and testers, but to help young people learn skills and approaches to writing and test-taking that will sustain their educational and professional journeys.

         Thank you for your consideration. I hope to hear from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

Leon Khoury