What we teach
English Literature Tutoring
Literature essays are won on argument, not on quotation count. Our tutors teach students to build a line of argument and use evidence in service of it — the shift that separates a solid grade from a top one.
We work with the student's own set texts, whatever the board has prescribed: Shakespeare, the nineteenth-century novel, modern prose and drama, and the poetry anthologies and unseen poetry papers.
Alongside close reading we teach the mechanics that examiners reward — thesis-led introductions, integrated quotation, analysis of form and structure as well as language, and the contextual material that earns marks when it is used to illuminate the text rather than bolted on at the end.
Exam boards and qualifications we cover
- AQA
- Pearson Edexcel
- OCR
- WJEC / Eduqas
- Cambridge (CAIE) IGCSE & International A-Level Literature
- IB Language A: Literature
- College Board AP English Literature
Levels our english literature tutors currently teach: GCSE, A-Level, IB, Middle School, High School, AP.
Syllabus coverage
What english literature tutoring covers
Poetry
- Anthology poems and comparison
- Unseen poetry technique
- Form, metre and structure
- Voice and perspective
Prose
- The nineteenth-century novel
- Modern prose
- Narrative technique
- Character and theme tracking
Drama
- Shakespeare
- Modern and post-war drama
- Stagecraft and dramatic method
- Extract-to-whole-text questions
Essay craft
- Thesis-led argument
- Integrating quotation
- Analysing form and structure
- Using context with purpose
In the lesson
What a lesson actually looks like
A diagnostic first lesson
The tutor works through a short set of problems to find where understanding actually breaks down — which is usually one or two topics earlier than the one causing trouble in class.
Teaching, then practice under exam conditions
Concepts are taught from first principles on the shared whiteboard, then applied to past-paper questions from the student's own board, timed and marked against the real mark scheme.
Feedback the student can act on
Each lesson ends with what went well, the specific technique to fix, and targeted practice before the next session. Parents get regular progress updates.
English Literature tutoring starts from USD 15 per hour. See all plans.
FAQ
English Literature tutoring — your questions
How much context should an essay include?
Only as much as genuinely illuminates the reading — and integrated, not appended. Context dropped in as a closing paragraph tends to score poorly; the same fact used to explain why a writer made a particular choice scores well. Boards vary in weighting, so we work to the student's own mark scheme.
My child has read the text but can't write about it. What's missing?
Normally a working argument. Students who summarise are describing what happens; students who score are answering why the writer made a choice and what effect it creates. We start by building thesis statements from a question before writing a single paragraph.
Do you help with closed-book exams?
Yes — quotation banks organised by theme rather than by chapter, and practice writing from memory under timed conditions. Most students are carrying far more quotations than they can deploy, and far fewer than they think that are actually useful across multiple questions.
Find your english literature tutor
Tell us the level and curriculum you're working towards — we'll match you with a specialist, usually within a day.