Whether you are an academic researcher with a story to tell or a writer of commercial fiction or non-fiction, a writing or communications workshop with Simon Clews could take your work to the next level.
For academics, in this climate of knowledge exchange and community engagement, communicating to an audience outside the academy is becoming increasingly important for research professionals. Simon Clews offers a number of workshops for academic researchers considering engaging with a mainstream audience. The skills acquired in these workshops are essential tools for any academic, whether they intend working exclusively in Academia or whether they intend to straddle the academic and non-academic worlds.
And for writers success is not only about the words on the page, but it also revolves around the writer as ‘talent’ and how well you can talk about what you write, how you pitch your writing to publishers and editors and how you generate interest in both you and your work in the digital world.
For many decades now Simon Clews has been working with writers and academics around the world to help them improve their written and oral communication skills and their non-fiction writing. His client list includes:
- ETHZ’s Future Cities Laboratory at the National University of Singapore
- Melbourne University
- Australian National University, Canberra
- National Book Development Council of Singapore
- University of British Columbia, Vancouver
- Griffith Review, Australia
- University of Hong Kong
- University of Edinburgh’s Beltane Centre
- Camberwell Girls Grammar School
- University of Western Australia
- Thaksin University, Thailand
- The Rhodes Trust, UK
- Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia
- The Doherty Institute, Melbourne, Australia
- A*Star OSCAR, Singapore
- Science Pathways, Australia
- Professional Historians’ Association of Australia
- Edith Cowan University, Perth
- University of Queensland
- CQ University, Australia
- Mount Scopus Memorial College, Melbourne
- Burnet Institute, Melbourne
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne
- Baker Institute, Melbourne
- The University of Canberra
- RMIT University, Melbourne
- University of Tasmania
- Maastricht University, The Netherlands
- University of Victoria, Vancouver Island
- Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne
- Student Orthopaedic and Musculoskeletal Association, Australia
- Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School, Melbourne
- St Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver
- Surrey International Writers Conference, Vancouver
- Australian Medical Students’ Association
The following workshop topics give an idea of what Simon can offer, but are by no means the limit of his program. In fact, Simon quite likes being told who he is to be teaching, how long he has them for and what you as the organiser would like them to learn – he will then create a tailored program to suit your needs.
Workshops available in 2026
From Nervous to Noteworthy: Own the Room
Your research is only as powerful as your ability to communicate it. Whether you’re presenting at a conference, pitching for funding, or speaking up in a room full of experts, how you show up matters — and it’s a skill, not a personality trait.
This workshop gives you the practical tools to present with clarity, confidence, and genuine authority. You’ll learn to structure ideas so they land, manage the nerves that trip most people up, and handle difficult questions without losing your footing. By the end, you won’t just know how to present — you’ll actually want to.
This session includes:
- Structuring your presentation so your key message is impossible to miss
- Techniques for managing nerves before and during your talk
- Voice, pace, and body language — the unspoken signals that shape how you’re received
- How to read a room and adapt on the fly
- Fielding tough questions with composure and credibility
- Hands-on practice with real-time feedback in a supportive environment
Putting Yourself Out There: A Researcher’s Guide to Public Profile
You’ve done the work. Now it’s time to make sure the world knows about it.
In a media landscape that moves fast and has little patience for jargon, researchers who can communicate clearly and compellingly have a serious advantage. This half-day workshop gives you a practical road map for building your public profile — from your first media release to your first opinion piece — and shows you how to position yourself as the kind of expert journalists actually call back.
There’s no single path to visibility. This workshop helps you find yours.
This session covers:
- How the modern media landscape works — and where researchers fit into it
- Writing a media release that gets opened, not deleted
- Giving interviews with confidence — in print, on radio, and on camera
- Pitching and writing for newspapers, magazines, and online publications
- Crafting opinion pieces that get published and get noticed
- Building a sustainable public profile without it consuming your research life
The New Academic: Just Write Better
Academic writing is a language all of its own — and for most of your career, you’ve been rewarded for speaking it fluently. But outside the university, it’s a barrier. It distances you from readers, buries your ideas, and makes brilliant work invisible.
The New Academic: Just Write Better is a half-day workshop that helps you make the switch. Drawing on the principles behind Simon Clews’s book The New Academic, it takes you through the habits, techniques, and mindset shifts that turn accomplished academic writers into writers that general audiences actually want to read.
This session covers:
- Why academic writing habits work against you — and how to break them
- What compelling non-academic writing actually looks like (and how to recognise it in your own work)
- Finding a voice that’s distinctly yours without sacrificing credibility
- Structuring ideas for a general reader who hasn’t signed up for your argument
- Writing for digital audiences — shorter, sharper, more human
- The art of the edit: distilling and crystallising your writing until every word earns its place
Words That Pay: Making a Living from Your Writing
You’ve already got something most aspiring writers spend years trying to develop — deep expertise, a body of work, and hard-won credibility in your field. This workshop helps you turn that into something more: a writing and communications practice that earns.
Words That Pay is a practical, no-nonsense half-day workshop for researchers and academics who are ready to take their writing beyond the university — whether that means freelance articles, a book deal, a consulting practice, or simply a social media presence that opens doors. You don’t need to abandon your academic career to make it work. You just need a plan.
This session covers:
- Honestly assessing what you have to say — and who’s willing to pay to read it
- Identifying markets for your work at local, national, and international level
- The practicalities of setting yourself up as a writing business — from invoicing to online presence
- Using social media strategically, not exhaustingly
- Making simple, effective videos that promote your work and build your audience
- Self-publishing in 2026 — a serious option for any academic ready to own their work
Simon offers group and individual training in the Three Minute Thesis competition.
And for those who want a longer, more intensive, deep dive into all this, Simon offers the Writers’ Weekend Bootcamp and the Communications Weekend Bootcamp.
Please contact Simon to discuss your training needs.