by Jane Hirschhorn, owner, JBH Tutoring
The heart of our academic writing programs involve helping students with analytical essays on literary works. Here’s how I helped one student during the 2025-26 school year. The student’s name and identifying details has been changed for privacy.
Jake and I began working together when he was in seventh grade. He is now a junior at a highly selective Boston-area private school. This year he tackled Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Bright and thoughtful with a dry sense of humor, Jake informed me that he would be tasked with selecting his own paper topic. Before we began reading, we did a bit of research on Hawthorne. I also told Jake to be prepared for Hawthorne’s signature writing style; long sentences, big words, big emotions.
As we moved our way through the novel, Jake chose his paper topic around the letter “A.” In the story, the narrator notes the adjectives that describe main character Hester Prynne beyond the “A” she wears branding her as an adulteress. In our discussion of the novel, I encouraged Jake to explore additional “A” meanings beyond what is listed in the story. Together we created a list of “A” adjectives to describe Hester. Reviewing Jake’s multiple drafts, I offered him specific, targeted feedback on how to make his analysis even stronger, at times recommending that he substitute certain words for more precise ones in the body and concluding paragraphs.
Jake earned an A on his paper. “Nicely done!” his teacher wrote. “It seems you enjoyed writing this.” He earned an A+ for the marking period.
Jake was recently tapped by the English department to work as a peer tutor in his school’s writing lab, and I couldn’t be happier.
Pictured is a student I worked with from middle school through high school. She is now a first-year student at a prestigious west coast college.