English Help Desk

Each ticket is treated as it’s own topic. Another way to look at it is that each ticket counts as one question, or inquiry. So, let’s say you have a question about some wording in a presentation you’ve created for that big conference coming up, and you want us to look at a slide to make sure the message is clear, the wording is tidy, and everything looks good. You could ask us, “Is this slide confusing?” and you would give us the text for that slide. We’ll let you know if the message is clear, and if it’s not, we’ll make suggestions for how to clear it up. Notice, this hypothetical ticket would deal with one topic–the clarity of the message of one slide.

Use English Help Desk tickets (included with paid membership plans) to get English support throughout the week or month. If you have a question come to mind throughout the day, just log in and ask us!

Let’s say you have a question in your textbook or on your homework assignment that you just don’t quite understand. Or, let’s say that you don’t understand–exactly–what your teacher or professor is asking you to do for an essay. You could submit an English Help Desk Ticket letting us know why you’re confused, a copy of the prompt (you can upload files), and exactly what you hope to get as an answer from us. NOTE: We DON’T give answers to homework or tests–but we DO help YOU get the answer. In other words, we won’t do the homework for you, but we will help you do the homework correctly.

Don’t confuse this with proofreading, but let’s say you’re really stuck on the closing line of an email or essay. You’re not sure–exactly–which phrase or clause would be the best to use. Submit an English Help Desk Ticket and let us know that you’re struggling with this decision, and we’ll help you come to a great solution.

Let’s say you need to send an important email to your boss, and while drafting that message you are having a hard time expressing what, exactly, it is you’re trying to say without offending or potentially upsetting him or her. Submit an English Help Desk Ticket and we’ll take a look at the specific sentence or paragraph you want us to focus on.  We will help you compose a message that is compelling, to the point, and politically correct.

Help! I can never remember when I’m supposed to use “farther” or “further.” Do you have any special tricks up your sleeve to help me out?

Thanks for asking. Why, yes, we do. To remember to use farther or further, just remember…

Did you hear a confusing idiom or phrasal verb on the radio while driving to work in the car? Submit an English Help Desk Ticket and we’ll let you know its meaning, how to remember it, and if possible, its origin and common usage.

If you can ask it, we can answer it. Just make sure you’re not trying to use your ticket to get proofreading, editing, or tutoring services. We can certainly offer you those services, just not through the English Help Desk.

We’re here to help you learn, not give you the answers. We believe that true learning happens when you arrive at the answer yourself. When using the English Help Desk, please don’t just copy and paste a question from your homework and ask us for an answer. Instead, think about why you’re confused and we’ll help you as best we can.

Paid memberships come with different levels of proofreading services already included. If you have an entire paragraph or an essay you want help with, you’ll need to use your proofreading credits or purchase some tutoring time. Please don’t send us a big block of text and ask us to proofread it. Instead, pick a sentence or two and ask specific questions to let us know how you could use our advice, and we’ll help you. For example, let’s say you want us to take a look at your thesis statement, which might be one or two sentences long. You could ask us if it’s clear, or even if it meets your teacher’s requirements (send us the requirements), and we’ll help you. We won’t write the thesis for you, and we won’t proofread it for you. Extra help like that can be received through our proofreading and tutoring services (we still won’t write your thesis for you, though…).

The English Help Desk is designed to provide quick, effective help on specific topics submitted by you. Although we can certainly extend the learning of an English Help Desk topic in a live tutoring session, trying to get in-depth help on a topic over an extended period of time isn’t what this service is for. Let’s say you want help understanding how to use commas correctly. You can ask a specific question about a specific comma usage (say, when using introductory elements in a sentence), and you can even provide an example of a sentence or two that you’re stuck on. In a single ticket we won’t be able to help you understand how to use commas with introductory elements, AND dates, AND parenthetical elements, AND… You’ll be able to reply to your ticket twice. After that, we’ll need to close it and open a new ticket. If you’re not sure, you can always ask us before you submit.