Speaker 1:
Welcome to Upswing, the online tutoring platform for Houston City College students. Please take a few minutes to watch this video to see how the whole thing works. We also suggest that you go into our resource center and we will show you how in the video to read more about maximizing how we can help you get better grades. Slides 1 through 8 explain the process of sending us your paper. Slides 9 through 15 explain how to retrieve your paper and what the tutors do. The last slides, slides 16 through 22, will help you interpret the comments that your tutor makes and help you find the resources you need to be successful in your revision. We look forward to helping you succeed.
Before you decide if online tutoring is right for you, please take time to look at what tutors do and do not do. We don't edit your work. We don't grade your work or comment on a grade that a teacher gave you, and we don't tell you what to write about or how to write it. We point out areas of strength and weakness in what you say and how you say it. You already know how to get to the Upswing login page. Always read the information box in the top left-hand corner to see what our average turnaround time is. All work is uploaded and downloaded. There is no face-to-face, Skype, or FaceTime in our online tutoring program. Also, check for other information notes. You can use your HCC email or Eagle ID login and the associated password. If you change your password, you will have to change it in Upswing as well.
The help dialogue box in the lower right-hand corner is useful only if you need someone to tell you how to submit or retrieve a paper. The help folks cannot tell you if the paper is done, when it will be done, or what a tutor's comments mean. Submitting a paper or other work is easy. You must make a few choices and attach your paper and the assignment that your teacher gives you if you have it electronically. From the dropdown menu, select the appropriate subject. We do have a queue for subjects not listed elsewhere, but always check through the entire dropdown menu before choosing that particular one. If you submit an assignment to the wrong queue, it will take us longer to get your work back to you.
Next, give your paper a distinct title so you can easily find it later. Don't name it essay or English or anything like that. Tell us who your instructor is because we have probably tutored a lot of paper from that teacher's students and know what he or she wants. Tell us specifically what class the paper is for. For example, Psych 2301 or English 1301. That helps us to know what is expected as well. Attach the paper and the assignment, pulling them from the hard drive on your computer. Next, briefly summarize the assignment. For example, you could write, "I am supposed to compare two pioneers in the field of early childhood education." Summarizing it helps us to make sure that you understand it. The last step is to tell us the reason you are asking for help. What are your biggest concerns? We cannot mark every error or focus on everything, so we need to concentrate on what help you need with the most. You can choose another focus for the next paper.
On the right-hand side of the homepage, you'll see a box that says current submissions. Once a paper or assignment is sent to us, it will populate that box. Below it, you have a list of everything you have ever submitted to us. You can click on any of them to refresh your memory about what we have suggested for you. Because you have that history, it is important that each submission have a different title. This slide shows you how to use the dropdown subject box. Make sure you pick the right subject to get things moving as quickly as possible. Don't submit anything to multiple queues. Any extras will be rejected.
This is an example of a properly filled out submission form. It is faster to do it than actually to explain it. This one shows you how to select your paper from your hard drive, and slide number eight shows the assignment. If we have the assignment, it all works much better for us. After you submitted your assignment, you should see a yellow box under the title Current Submissions. This will indicate that your assignment has been properly submitted here to us at Upswing. If it does not appear, you will have to start the entire process over again.
When your assignment has been tutored, you will receive this message from Upswing. The tutor will address you by name and provide you with a copy of the tutored paper. Tutors may also include handouts for you to review regarding your submission. Please feel free to save these handouts to your computer for any future use. They are yours to keep. Here is what a tutored copy of your paper might look like. You can also save this copy onto your computer. Please make sure to read the tutor's head note at the beginning of your paper. The tutor will give you specific areas to concentrate on. Also, make sure that you look for the embedded comments in bold blue type throughout your paper. These notations will allow you to correct any parts of your essay. Please make sure to read all the way through the paper. Sometimes the tutor will include a footnote that will ask about specific areas such as work cited or formatting.
You will also receive a copy of the following message in your HCC email account. It is always important to check the disposition of your assignment from Upswing. It may turn out that your paper has been rejected. There are a few reasons why a tutor will reject your paper. First, it could be that it was submitted to multiple queues. For example, if you are submitting a history paper and put it in both the English and history cues, we will reject the one in the English queue because all tutors will review both your content as well as your grammar from the history queue. It is not necessary to submit your paper to multiple queues.
Secondly, it could be that you have submitted a third draft. Here at Upswing, we can only look at two drafts per assignment. This has been our policy since we began tutoring back in 2006. You should take the suggestions from the previous two tutors and help create your paper. Another reason we would reject a submission is because you have resubmitted a paper that has not been properly revised following the initial review. We need to see if you have taken the tutor suggestions into consideration when submitting your second draft. In addition, if you submit an assignment for a subject we do not offer tutoring in, it will be rejected.
Finally, if the topic or the tone of your paper is offensive to the tutor, especially if there is objectionable content or language, it will be rejected. If you persist in submitting offensive material, there is a good chance you will not be able to use Upswing in the future. A message indicating that your paper has been rejected will also be sent to your HCC email account. About 24 hours after you download your paper, you will receive this survey from Upswing. It is completely anonymous. Please complete the survey and feel free to be honest with us. Your feedback not only helps us improve our services, but it will also help the next student who uses Upswing. We cannot improve our service unless we know which areas need attention.
Getting your paper back isn't the end of the process. It is the midpoint. Now you must revise your work so that your teacher can see your work, not that of a tutor. Take time to read what the tutor says. Read the head note as well as the embedded comments. Remember that your teacher is the ultimate authority. So if what we tell you contradicts what he or she has said, especially if you haven't submitted the assignment, always go with what the teacher said. Ultimately, what you turn in for a grade is your responsibility. Tutors will point out patterns of errors, ask questions to get you thinking about what you have written, and make suggestions that can improve your work. Make sure you read everything. The comments and the questions from the tutor and your responses are conversation.
Check out the resource center that is linked to the login page. It takes you to a separate window that the HCC Library Guide has set up. Look at the tabs to find the most useful information for your subject matter. You can use anything that you find in the resource center, and you don't have to be logged in to access it. This source of information is our free gift to you. We take plagiarism very seriously. People who read your work, whether it's at work, in your neighborhood, in your church, or your child's school will make judgements about you, even if they think that you have copied work from a source. We highlight proven plagiarism in hot pink and possible plagiarism in your paper in hot green. Take these comments very seriously. Your professor may give you a zero for the assignment or for the class if you are caught cheating.
The resource center is loaded with information that will help you eliminate plagiarism from your work. In addition, although Houston City College has not made a full ruling as of this date as to whether to use AI or ChatGPT constitutes academic dishonesty, it is up to your professor as to whether such a tool is acceptable in your classwork. Please be safe and avoid any software that writes your paper for you. Finally, we are glad that you have chosen to use our asynchronous online tutoring program. We know that we can help you. Thank you.