Workshops
Every semester the Writing Lab organises interactive, hands-on (and free!) workshops to help you improve your academic writing skills.
Not sure what exactly is expected of you when it comes to writing assignments? Do you want to polish your academic writing style or structure your text more clearly? Or maybe you are working on your thesis and you are looking for tactics to keep yourself disciplined in your writing? Then our workshops are for you! Take a look below at our full range of workshops in semester 1 of 2026/27, and sign up!
Workshops
Basic skills in academic writing
Whatever your educational background, academic writing at university can be a big challenge. What exactly is an academic text? How do you come up with a good research question? How do you give your paper a clear structure and use an academic writing style? In collaboration with POPcorner The Hague we will address these questions, and teach you the basic rules and techniques of academic writing, so that you know exactly how to approach your next academic writing assignment.
Practical information
- Costs: Free
- Language: Dutch and English editions
- Format: Group
- Duration: 2 hours
- Registration: Dutch edition here, English edition here
Upcoming
- Dutch: 7 October, 11:15-13:00, The Hague.
- English: 5 October, 15:15-17:00, The Hague.
Creating a clear structure
Your teachers keep insisting on it: your text must have a clear structure! This makes sense, because a clear structure makes a text more pleasant to read and easier to understand. In this workshop you will learn how to structure your text in a crystal clear way at both chapter and paragraph level, for example, by using key sentences and signal words. In this way you will lift your academic writing skills to a higher level.
Practical information
- Costs: Free
- Language: Dutch and English editions
- Format: Group
- Duration: 2 hours
- Registration: through blue bottom above
Upcoming
- Dutch: 12 October, 15:15-17:00, Lipsius/2.02 (Leiden)
- English: 14 October, 11:15-13:00, Spui/3B.64 (The Hague)
Developing an academic writing style
Academic writing assignments must be written in an academic style. But what does that actually mean? What exactly makes a writing style academic or not academic? In this workshop you learn to evaluate your own writing style and to make it more academic where necessary by looking at texts in detail. This way you will lift your writing style to a higher level in no time.
Practical information
- Costs: Free
- Language: Dutch and English editions
- Format: Group
- Duration: 2 hours
- Registration: through blue bottom above
Upcoming
- Dutch: 28 October, 15:15-17:00, Lipsius/1.33 (Leiden)
- English: 28 October, 11:15-13:00, Wijnhaven/2.58 (The Hague)
Keep on writing: becoming a disciplined writer
Writing a thesis or paper can be a big challenge, especially now that study space on campus has become limited and students need to spend more time at home writing. How to make sure that you can get to work motivated, focused and efficient? In this workshop we will explain the best strategies, and you will be provided the opportunity to share your experiences and tips & tricks with your fellow students: procrastination will soon be a thing of the past!
Practical information
- Costs: Free
- Language: Dutch and English editions
- Format: Group
- Duration: 2 hours
- Registration: through blue bottom above
Upcoming
- Dutch: 1 December, 11:15-13:00, Oude Sterrewacht/C0.02 (Leiden)
- English: 3 December, 15:15-17:00, Wijnhaven/2.17 (The Hague)
NEW: Academic writing and GenAI
GenAI is a hot topic: new developments happen extremely fast. Where one person sees opportunities, another strongly objects its use. It may very well be that you already use GenAI for your course preparations! In this workshop we want to move beyond this yes/no divide, and consider together how and when to use GenAI in our academic writing process. To this end, we will zoom out and tackle questions such as: what is GenAI to begin with? What are these programs (not) capable of? Should this software have a place within higher education? What are the pros and cons? And (a crucial question) how does GenAI relate to plagiarism? Everyone interested is welcome: whether you are an experienced user, a sceptic, or just not sure how to feel about it just yet. The goal of the workshop is to have an open discussion that will help us make responsible choices concerning our use of GenAI. We will also do a bit of hands-on work, but you do not have to use GenAI yourself during the workshop if you are uncomfortable with that.
Practical information
- Costs: Free
- Language: Dutch and English editions
- Format: Group
- Duration: 2 hours
- Registration: through blue bottom above
Upcoming
- Dutch: 7 December, 15:15-17:00, Lipsius/2.17 (Leiden)
- English: 10 December, 15:15-17:00, Wijnhaven/2.17 (The Hague)