Who Am I?
I’m Dr Susan Mandala, Founder and Director of Writing Works Consulting. I help people turn great ideas into results with impact through clearer writing, sharper thinking, and more strategic use of language.
Formerly an academic at the University of Sunderland, I hold a PhD from the University of Cambridge in English and Applied Linguistics and bring to my practice:
30 years of research into the many ways English works in writing
A deep knowledge of the way writing and writers work across a range of genres and professions
A lifetime of experience in workshop design and delivery
Why Did I Start Writing Works Consulting?
In my time as an academic, I had the opportunity to work not only with colleagues and students, but also with regional businesspeople, local authority staff, schools, and creative writers. As I taught, mentored, and led workshops, I realised that the work of greatest and lasting value – and the work of most pressing need across a range of subjects and occupations – was all about writing, drafting, and thinking.
How do you take a pile of random notes and turn it into a persuasive argument?
How do you sort and sift through all your material to know what you should say first, and then next, and so on, until the conclusion?
How do you evaluate the information you’ve collected to communicate to others why it matters?
How do you move through successive drafts of your own work with deliberate purpose so that your final piece is effective and worthwhile?
Successfully working through challenges like these in my own writing inspired me to help others: my most important task as an educator and a trainer is helping people become more effective thinkers and writers. That is why I started Writing Works Consulting, to reach as many people in as many walks of life as I can to share what I know about writing with clarity, conviction, and purpose.
“When you write with clarity and conviction, you convince. When you through together a load of old boots, you get a pile of old boots.”
My Approach
As an academic, my field was pragmatic stylistics. If you’re like most people, you’re probably thinking ‘Pragma-what now?’ at this point. Pragmatics is the study of how people actually use language, and stylistics is the study of choice in language. An expert in both those fields, I specialise in what really matters when we write: the choices we make and the effects of those choices.
My approach to helping people improve their writing is innovative, informed by my research, and decision-based. Authors can choose different ways to write the same thing, and different ways to structure the same piece of work. Do you know on what basis you are making these choices? Are you making the best choices you can make? When you make changes to what you write, is it with the full knowledge of these choices? Or do you just throw things on the page and hope for the best?
I work with writers in a diverse range of professions and contexts – educators, professionals in the public and private sectors, academics, creative writers – to help them understand the full range of linguistic and structural choices at their disposal, and to empower them to make decisions about these choices purposefully and with intention, whether they’re writing a dissertation literature review, a policy evaluation, a progress and improvement plan, or dialogue for a space alien.
“Confident, effective writing comes from knowing what you want to say and working out how to best say it. Guiding people to do this is the core of my practice.”
What Do People Say About Me?
A Bit More About Me
When I’m not on duty as a writing consultant, I swim. But then again, maybe I’m always on duty: the more I swim, the more I realise what swimming and writing have in common. And so of course, I had to write about that. Wondering what that’s all about?
Hop over to LinkedIn and check out my posts on swimming and writing:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “It was a joy to see Susan working with our students. Her energy was infectious and her clear links between forming and evidencing argument will really elevate their academic writing moving forward” — Kim Lindsey, Curriculum Manager & Programme Lead of English Literature, Sunderland College ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Fantastic and highly informative workshop that raised a series of fundamentally important issues about AI and its impact on our ways of life” — Dr. Thomas Rodgers, Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology, University of Sunderland ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Get In Touch
Want to contact me about a writing workshop or my consulting & project support services? I’d love to hear from you.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “A brilliant masterclass covering the linguistic and technical aspects of character and conversation” — Nicholas Robinson, Writer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “A really informative session that really makes me aware of what I write about our young people” — Helen Westgarth ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️