Michelle Feder

writer and tutor

United States

"Why is writing so hard?"

Writing encompasses everything from coming up with ideas, planning, understanding the purpose of an assignment, shaping paragraphs, assembling sentences, to staying focused--down to the last spell-check.

I want to help learners of every age find greater ease in self-expression, whether writing a college application essay, generating a paper of literary analysis, or studying vocabulary. I want them to become stronger readers, writers, thinkers.

When I get to know new families, I strive to understand their goals, and I develop strategies to strengthen skills for every student. Whenever possible, I love to tailor the materials to their interests.

In addition to overall language arts and humanities studies, I support students with language-based learning challenges, including dyslexia and dysgraphia. To better serve all learners, I studied Wired for Reading, a kid-friendly linguistics program designed to strengthen reading, spelling, and vocabulary. To supplement my knowledge of handwriting mechanics, particularly for students who learned at home during the pandemic, I've begun studying Handwriting Without Tears. Even with keyboarding, it's critical that students retain the skill of writing by hand.

Past elementary school, few schools continue to focus on writing fundamentals. So for many students, with all kinds of minds, a structured approach, beginning at the sentence level, is the place to start.

Before becoming a mentor for writing and learning, I worked as a journalist and writer for Microsoft and other Seattle-area ventures. As a writer, I tell stories through a human lens, designed to make businesses grow and individual lives better.

Bringing together my professional background in communications and my passion for lifelong learning, I encourage a skill-based, conversational writing and thinking process with time-tested tools, craft, and heart.

Whether your focus is remediation, enrichment, or a college application essay, I'm happy to be a resource.

michelle.writingmentor@gmail.com

Portfolio
Seattle Magazine
03/01/2016
Are We Losing our Religion? Searching for Spirituality in Seattle

On Sunday morning, it's time for yoga church.At 8 Limbs Yoga Center in West Seattle, 35-55 students attend a class called bhakti yoga, described by owner and studio director Anne Phyfe Palmer as having a "devotional, heart-centered" approach. At the studio's flagship location on Capitol Hill, 25-40 people attend a similar class.

Microsoft Life
12/16/2014
Mathematical thinkers are key to our future - Microsoft Life

A report by the McKinsey Global Institute found that in the U.S. alone, by 2018, there will be 1.5 million jobs that require data analysis skills. As big data continues to grow, the industry needs people who have the quantitative chops to dig in, make sense of it, and make it actionable.

ParentMap
05/01/2005
Preschools teach kids (and parents) to eat right

Preschools teach kids (and parents) to eat right - Nutrition - Health and development At the Kent Child Development Center this spring, kids are starting a small community garden. They will begin in the classroom by planting carrot seeds, and will transfe

popcorntheblog
06/18/2012
Building a Better Tweet: Writing for Twitter

When I'm on Twitter, sometimes I have to refocus my eyes to fix on its assembly of hash tags, "at signs," and emoticons. But amid the punctuation gone wild, writers can find a haven, innovation, and heart. What makes a certain tweet memorable, retweetable-and what does it mean to succeed?

ParentMap
03/01/2010
Music therapy motivates with melody

When Wendy Zieve visits Forrest Neander of North Seattle, she comes equipped with a bag of tricks: drums, xylophones, hoops, ribbons and more. During each session, Zieve, a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC), uses tuneful tactics to engage 5-year-old Forrest, who has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal.

ParentMap
11/01/2006
A latte a day -- Coffee culture and its youngest consumers

A latte a day -- Coffee culture and its youngest consumers - Personal Stories For Kathy Wood, a Puyallup mom of three girls, a ritual unfolds during the hours of school drop-off and pick-up. With her 3-, 7-, and 8-year-olds in the car and a craving for an

JobsBlog: Life at Microsoft
Get a running start with these 10 career tips

October is an ideal time for us to recognize the contributions of women at Microsoft. With Grace Hopper going on this week, we're celebrating women in technology and business. We recently featured Sarah Filman, a Senior PM Lead for Microsoft OneDrive, who is attending this sold-out conference.

Intel Technology Provider
2016
Cloud Data Center Specialty Partner Guide

The digital economy is driving a virtuous cycle where connected devices and cloud-powered services are generating data as never before.