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Overview
At the Learning Hub, we aren’t singularly focused on helping you with a specific paper; we want to help you develop as a writer in ways that will continue to benefit you across your scholarly and professional life. Thus, we have multiple goals:
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- Helping students with writing assignments in their courses.
- Supporting students’ ongoing writing projects, such as theses and dissertations.
- Broadly developing students’ academic and scholarly writing capabilities, confidence, and enjoyment.
When Should I Seek Help?
Before Writing
Not exactly sure how to begin an assignment or a chapter? Stuck staring at the blank page? Bring an assignment to a writing tutor to brainstorm ideas, develop a generative argument, structure your paper, identify appropriate assignment models, and find useful sources. Spend time with a tutor describing your writing goals and have them help you bring your ideas into focus and onto the page.
During Writing
No matter how far along you are in an assignment, meeting with a writing tutor can be useful. You can come to a tutor with a specific request – like refining your argument, helping with transitions, or checking citations – or with a full or partial draft for them to review for feedback.
After Writing
Have you received feedback from your instructor or committee member, but you’re not exactly sure how to apply it to future work? Is some of the feedback confusing? Writing tutors can help you learn from feedback, apply those suggestions to future writing, and more generally integrate those lessons into your toolkit as a writer.
Our Tutors
Any of our writing tutors can help you on any writing task or assignment, however, each tutor also has areas of specialization that may align with your specific needs. Meet our tutors!
Click to open and collapse the accordions below to learn more about our tutors, their areas of expertise, and availabilities.
Kaushar Mahetaji
About Me
Kaushar Mahetaji is a first-year PhD student in the Media, Technology & Culture concentration. She holds a Master of Information in Critical Information Policy Studies from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Science from McMaster University’s Integrated Science program, where she focused on biochemistry. Her research interests include platform evolution and historiography, platform infrastructure, political economy, digital methods, and interdisciplinary and open research. Kaushar is also familiar with academic librarianship, having completed a two-year internship at the Gerstein Science Information Centre. She continues to support teaching and learning in librarianship at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) Library.
Outside of work, Kaushar enjoys creating digital art, learning about languages, drinking coffee and bubble tea, and exploring bookshops and museums.
Kaushar is fluent in Gujarati and would welcome speaking to students in Gujarati if preferred.
Writing and Tutor Specializations
Her expertise lies in scientific scholarly conventions. She has applied both quantitative and qualitative methods to her past work and enjoys assisting students with finding and evaluating resources, formatting citations, and forming arguments using data. She is passionate about interdisciplinary work and open research.
Tutoring Hours
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- Tuesdays: 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM (online) ET
- Thursdays: 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM (online) ET
Cate Alexander
About Me
Cate Alexander (she/her) is a is fourth-year PhD candidate in the Faculty of Information. Prior to U of T, Cate obtained a BA Combined Honours in History and Classics and a MA in Digital Humanities at the University of Alberta. Cate’s lifelong passion for history has taken her from archaeological field digs in Greece and Italy to the digital realms of online archives. Her dissertation examines digital public history through feminist new-materialist and political economic theory in order to establish a better understanding of how platforms influence the production, distribution, and consumption of public history. Cate’s research was generously supported by SSHRC in both her Masters’ and her PhD, and she is the current coordinator for the GLAM Incubator.
When she is not studying cultural heritage, digital humanities, or media theory, Cate can be found reading trashy murder mysteries, watching long video essays on YouTube, or dancing (Lindy Hop, blues, fusion, balfolk, contra, west coast…).
Writing and Tutor Specializations
She can help students with writing for the humanities and overcoming procrastination, enhancing her productivity. She’s skilled in drafting grant applications for bodies like SSHRC and OGS, and proficient in using research management software like Obsidian, Scrivener, and Zotero. Additionally, she can provide tutoring on note-taking for various academic purposes and giving effective presentations and public talks.
Tutoring Hours
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- Mondays: 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM ET (online)
Ciara Zogheib
About Me
Ciara Zogheib is a second-year PhD student in the Faculty of Information, studying how people integrate data and information during interdisciplinary research. Her academic work is complemented by her work as a data analyst with the federal government. Before beginning her PhD, Ciara completed a Master of Information degree at U of T’s iSchool and a Bachelor of Science degree in the Honours Integrated Science program at McMaster University. When not staring at endless spreadsheets and PDFs, Ciara enjoys reading old novels, playing tabletop RPGs, and being inevitably disappointed by her favourite sports teams.
Ciara is conversant in French and would welcome speaking to students in French if preferred.
Writing and Tutor Specializations
Her expertise lies in Research design (methods, analysis, sampling, data management plans), Communicating about data (tailoring data-focused writing and visuals for different audiences and objectives), Data Visualization: Excel, R, Python, Tableau Public, Power BI, Database Querying: SQL, Data Cleaning and Analysis: Excel, R, Python, Accessibility and ethics considerations in data work.
Tutoring Hours
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- Mondays: 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM (online) ET *will be out of the country from June 17-24th, and later in August for a conference (dates TBD)
Book a Session
Appointments are available to Faculty of Information students only.
To book a session, please visit the Writing Support Module. This website is only available to Faculty of Information students who are logged in with their UTORid credentials.
