My experience

I have been creating and giving writing training courses since 1986.

Initially, I worked mainly with HBO and WO students, but later I developed training courses for PhD students. It always boils down to finding a more effective approach that leads to a more efficient and pleasant process and a better product. I gave/give such courses at universities in Middelburg, Nijmegen, Utrecht, and Wageningen, but also in Ghana, Suriname, Tanzania, and South Africa. I usually work with diverse groups: writers with backgrounds in (combinations of) arts, science, social science, medicine, law, ..... In addition, in recent years I gave courses in Academic Skills and Design of Writing training at the University of Groningen, and workshops to writers who want to start a writing retreat (or writing days) well prepared.

In 2006, I did my PhD on a study on interaction between thesis writers and their supervisors (“Uitgesproken Complex”). Analysing their conversations provided many insights into what risks are and how we can avoid them and communicate more effectively with each other. The main insights ended up in the book I co-wrote with Jacqueline van Kruiningen in 2022: “Geef ze het nakijken”. We are working on an English edition.

In 2007, I became manager of the Academic Writing Centre Nijmegen. Since 2016, I have been head of the Skills Lab - Writing Centre at Utrecht University. These centres provide writing coaching to Ba and Ma-students (www.uu.nl/writingcentre). My role is mainly to train peer tutors and guide them in the application of non-directive coaching.