Date/Time
Date(s) - 07/09/2026 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Audience:
NARTI Training & Development
Academic Writing Masterclass Series – Goal Setting for the Academic Writing Year
Monday 7th September 2026 (12.30-13.30 UK time)
Online via Zoom
Goal Setting for the Academic Writing Year is a live, interactive session that helps academic writers develop a concrete, workable plan for the year ahead. It’s designed for advanced-stage doctoral researchers (years 3 or above) and academics at any career stage – from those writing their first paper to established academics juggling teaching, admin and a backlog of half-finished projects.
This is the first session in a series of masterclasses, running once per month up to and including January 2027. Further details about subsequent classes will be provided at the end of this session.
By the end of the session, attendees will have:
- An overall writing goal for the coming academic year, and specific plans for the term
- A clear distinction between output goals (what they’ll produce: a paper, a chapter, a grant application) and practice goals (the habits and process that get them there), and a plan for each
- A grounding in the psychology of goal-setting – including why ‘positive thinking’ alone doesn’t change behaviour, and what does
- Time to ask Bec Evans and Chris Smith questions about their own writing situation
This session is built on Bec and Chris’s work coaching of writers, including many academics, and is grounded in research on goal-setting and behaviour change rather than generic motivational content.
Practical details
- Format: Live, interactive webinar [60 minutes]
- Delivery: Online, via Zoom
- A follow up goal setting questionnaire and handout of the exercises
About the facilitators
Bec Evans and Chris Smith are co-founders of The Written Academy and co-authors of Written: How to Keep Writing and Build a Habit that Lasts. They host the podcast This Might Work: Experiments in Creativity and write the Breakthroughs & Blocks newsletter, both exploring the psychology of creative persistence. Their coaching and workshops draw on research across thousands of writers they’ve taught, coached and surveyed.
Places are limited and if you can commit to participating for the full duration of the masterclass and would like to register, please do so via using the link at the top of this page.