Online writing company introduces "virtual writing coaches" for students.

Around the Writer's Block has begun offering online coaching in an attempt to improve the writing skills of high school and college students.

(PRWEB) September, 2003 -- "I see too many high school and beginning college students who seem to have a hard time putting together simple sentences and paragraphs," says Mark Jacobson, owner of Around the Writer's Block, an online writing company.

"It's a problem of too many students, too few teachers and underfunded school districts. There's a limit to have much time you can spend with a student so, at a certain point, that student has to move on without regard to whether he or she has attained an adequate writing proficiency level."

Jacobson should know, he has been a published writer for more than 25 years. Around the Writer's Block was started three years ago as a writing company dealing primarily in public relations.

"I had clients sending me information that they wanted including in their press releases. I was shocked at the inability of these obviously intelligent people to put their thoughts into words."

Jacobson soon noticed that the problem went much deeper than incompetent teachers or bored students. He found that the problem was ingrained in almost every aspect of day-to-day communications.

"I noticed e-mails and faxes that were poorly thought out with thoughts that were disjointed and words that were used improperly to the point where their meaning was lost entirely. We started our student coaching service because of my frustration at the written communications that I was receiving on a dally basis."

Around the Writer's Block (www.goATWB.com/Student.html) offers a three-month "semester" for $250. This entitles the student to unlimited consultations for essays, term papers or whatever writing project the student has to prepare for class. Jacobson stresses that they do not write papers and encourages parental involvement.

"We will work with the student as he or she is writing the paper. The idea of our service is to be a virtual editor. We will guide and edit the student, but the research and the basic material of the document will be their own. Our hope this that they will eventually come to understand the fundamentals of a properly written communication."