For over a decade I have been helping organizations and individuals in both the public and private sectors learn to get their message across more successfully and, in doing so, to enhance their performance as professionals who need to speak and write in English.

As a writer [see Publications], I am well aware of the kinds of challenges my clients face: selecting the most relevant information, structuring it in a logical way and choosing the right tone in which to communicate with their readers. Having presented the results of my own PhD research at numerous conferences and meetings, I am also familiar with the daunting task of giving lively and effective presentations.

A three-month Train-the-Trainer program (KSG Berenschot, 2000) – more recently reinforced by a three-day workshop on Training Skills (CCJ, 2010), and a workshop on Presentation Techniques (Het Consulaat, 2003) – equipped me with the necessary tools and skills to help others learn to communicate more effectively. Meanwhile, over ten years of hands-on experience in giving workshops, courses and individual coaching has provided me with ample opportunity to use and further develop those skills.

Besides giving workshops, I also teach a course on writing in English to students enrolled in the Cross Cultural Business Skills minor in the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam). Since 2006 I have been teaching the eight-week course Writing English That’s Fit to Print (formerly: Writing in English for the Media) at Hogeschool Utrecht (offered twice yearly). From 1993 to 1996, while I was working on my PhD, I taught courses on Old Frisian Literature at Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit. My experience as an educator began even earlier as a private tutor in English for Dutch speakers in the late 1980s.