Transfer Students

Writing

When transferring to WMU, we believe you should have a choice in the courses you take and what is appropriate for your level of writing skill. The process we use to help you and our advisors choose which English class is right for you is a self-directed placement process. This process allows for you to choose which English class is appropriate based on your writing abilities. Students are encouraged to talk about this decision with their academic advisor. More information on the differences between the English classes is below. 

Students who transfer a college-level writing course of 3 credits or more semester hours (2.7 for quarter system classes) or a sequence of courses that satisfies the college-level writing requirement at the transfer institution will be exempted from the self-directed placement process. 

If you are unsure of your abilities and would like to submit a writing sample for assessment, contact Kim Ballard

ENGL 1000: The Writing Process

This course is designed to help students improve their writing before they take College-Level Writing; the college-level writing course is required of all students. In The Writing Process course, you will be introduced to a variety of genres, including narrative, personal, creative, analytic, and argumentative. Focus is on development and improvement in your writing process skills that can be applied in all disciplines including grammar and usage, sentence and paragraph development, and organization/focus. This course does not count toward English major or minor. It is graded on a Credit/No Credit basis. Credit for the course will not apply to the number of credits needed for graduation.

ENGL 1050 or IME 1020: College-Level Writing 

College-level writing courses (ENGL 1050 or IME 1020) are either three or four credit hours, depending on your major.  The courses focus on academic writing.  In these courses, you will work closely with the instructor to develop your sense of language as a means of shaping and ordering your experience and ideas, and to develop imagination, thought, organization, and clarity in your written work. While it satisfies one of your general education proficiencies, it does not count as credit towards English major or minor.

Reading

Students who transfer 26 semester hours or more of credit with a GPA of 2.0 or better, or who transfer the equivalent of LS 1040 are exempted from the reading skills option. 

All other transfer students will have the option to take a reading skills course (LS 1040) and fall within the Self Directed Placement for Reading program. You will be given the choice to enroll in the LS 1040 course or not. The LS 1040 course is a 2-credit hour course in which the two credits count toward your semester status, but the two credits do not count toward graduation from WMU. Information on what is covered in the LS 1040 course is below. 

LS 1040: Effective Reading for College Students

This course is designed to provide you with strategic literacy skills for academic success. The areas of focus include developing your academic vocabulary, critically understanding texts and strengthening your reading and studying practices.