Courses

The Academic English Program offers three courses for UW students:

• ENGL 103: Writing From Sources
• ENGL 104: Essentials of College Communication
• ENGL 105: English for International Teaching Assistants (ITAs)

Who the Courses Are For

The academic English courses (ENGL 103–104) are intended primarily for current UW students who are multilingual or for whom English is not their first or primary language, or others who generally want to improve their academic English skills. Courses cover a wide range of necessary skills, including critically analyzing and responding to readings, developing research questions, making claims, grammar and academic vocabulary, note-taking and effectively leading class and small group discussions.

ENGL 103 and ENGL 104 can also be satisfied through successful completion of our Graduate School Preparation Program. ENGL 105 is designed specifically for graduate students who will be international teaching assistants at the UW.

Credits & Grades

Graduate students: AEP courses are noncredit bearing but do count toward University enrollment requirements. AEP course grades are not factored in GPA calculations; however, AEP course grades will appear on transcripts.

Undergraduate students: ENGL 103–104 are credit courses and can be counted toward undergraduate degree requirements. Grades are factored into the undergraduate GPA. Undergraduates cannot take ENGL 105.

Note: The Academic English Program is part of UW Continuum College, a self-sustaining unit. There is an additional course fee for all AEP courses, with the exception of ENGL 105.

Course Placement

ENGL 103–104

Students who have not yet met Graduate School Policy 3.2 (the UW ELP requirement) are placed into ENGL 103 and/or 104 according to standardized test scores submitted to the Graduate School. Learn more about placement.

ENGL 103 and ENGL 104 can be taken in either order or concurrently. Students with this requirement must enroll in an AEP course before registering for other UW courses.

ENGL 105

Some graduate students who will be international teaching assistants at the UW are required to take ENGL 105. Students with a speaking subscore of 26+ (TOEFL iBT) or 7.0+ (IELTS) are exempt from the ENGL 105 requirement. To learn more, see Policy 5.2: Conditions of appointment for TAs who are not native speakers of English.

Course Schedule