Please refer to our earlier requirements if you declared the writing minor before Summer 2025.
Declaring a Minor in English or in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC)
There are no admission requirements and no prerequisites for minors at the UW. Any undergraduate student with at least sophomore standing (45 credits completed) who is officially declared in any major may declare a minor with his or her major adviser's permission. If you have not yet declared a major (i.e., if you are still in "premajor" status), you are not yet eligible to declare a UW minor. (This does not mean that you cannot begin to take classes now that will eventually apply toward the minor, however.)
To declare a minor, meet with your major advisor. Only an adviser there may sign the form to declare a minor; this is to ensure that students meet satisfactory progress requirements.There are no deadlines for declaring minors, except that you cannot declare a minor after the deadline for applying to graduate. In other words, you cannot declare a minor after the third week of the quarter in which you intend to graduate.
English majors are not eligible to declare an English Minor or a Writing Minor per UW policy.
English minors, reach out to the Humanities Academic Services Center for help registering for English classes as early as the last week of any registration period 1.
English Minor Requirements
The English minor requires a minimum of 30 credits in English courses taken at the 200, 300, or 400 level:
- any 200-, 300-, or 400-level English course may count, with the exceptions of ENGL 295 and 491, which may not be applied to the minor;
- at least 20 credits applied to the minor must be taken at the 300 or 400 level;
- at least 20 credits applied to the minor must be taken in residence at the UW Seattle;
- an average GPA of 2.00 must be maintained among all ENGL courses being applied to the English minor.
- No more than five credits may be counted from Creative Writing courses.
Notes:
20 credits must be taken in residence at the UW.
No 100-level courses may apply toward the English minor.
Some courses may be restricted during Registration Period 1 to majors only; we're not generally able to override these restrictions, so those pursuing the minor must in most cases wait until Period 2 registration to enroll. See the Time Schedule notes for individual course restrictions. Those few courses that are restricted to majors only will have a note that reads, "English majors only PER 1." By UW policy, English majors may not add a minor in English.
TPC Minor Requirements
The Technical and Professional Communication Minor requires 30 credits in the below designations (10 credits in Core Courses and 20 credits in Elective courses). is designed to provide students with concentrated study of and practice in writing, language, and rhetoric related to technical and professional topics. The minor is most appropriate for students interested in careers in technical writing, technical editing, technical journalism, business and business writing, marketing, publishing, education, public relations, and scientific and technical fields where writing, analytic, and communication skills are valued.
Core Courses (10 credits):
- ENGL 206: Rhetoric in Everyday Life
- ENGL 288: Introduction to Professional and Technical Writing
Elective Courses (20 credits): See below for list of approved courses
Technical and Professional Communication (10 credits)
- ENGL 289: Business Writing
- ENGL 388: Professional and Technical Writing
- ENGL 390: Careers in Technical and Professional Communication
- ENGL 391: Grant Writing
- ENGL 392: Technical and Professional Editing
- ENGL 394: Technical Communication: Big Data, Privacy, and Surveillance
- ENGL 396: Software Documentation
- ENGL 480: Workplace Research Methods
- ENGL 488: Writing in Health and Medicine
Additional Writing, Rhetoric, Communication, and Design (minimum 10 credits)
English courses
- ENGL 197: Writing in the Humanities
- ENGL 198: Writing in the Social Sciences
- ENGL 199: Writing in the Natural Sciences
- ENGL 208: Data and Narrative
- ENGL 270: Language and Society
- ENGL 281: Intermediate Expository Writing
- ENGL 282: Intermediate Multimodal Composition
- ENGL 296: Critical Literacy in the Natural Sciences
- ENGL 297: Intermediate Writing in the Humanities
- ENGL 298: Intermediate Writing in the Social Sciences
- ENGL 299: Intermediate Writing in the Natural Sciences
- ENGL 306: Introduction to Rhetoric
- ENGL 370: English Language Study
- ENGL 371: English Syntax
- ENGL 373: History of the English Language
- ENGL 375: Rhetorical Genre Theory and Practice
- ENGL 381: Advanced Expository Writing
- ENGL 382: Special Topics in Multimodal Composition
- ENGL 369: Research Methods in Language and Rhetoric
- ENGL 471: Theory and Practice of Teaching Writing
- ENGL 472: Language Learning
- ENGL 473: Current Developments in English Studies
- ENGL 478: Language and Social Policy
- ENGL 479: Language Variation and Language Policy in North America
- ENGL 481: Special Studies in Expository Writing
Communications courses
- COM 359: Writing for Mass Media
- COM 362: Community Journalism (News Lab)
- COM 459: Narrative Journalism
- COM 460: Special Reporting Topics
- COM 464: Writing with Voice
Design courses
- DESIGN 209: Fundamentals of Typography
- DESIGN 214: Marks and Symbols
- DESIGN 250: Visualizing Ideas
- DESIGN 369: Visual Systems
- DESIGN 371: Interface Design 1
HCDE courses
- HCDE 308: Visual Communication in Human Centered Design and Engineering
- HCDE 313: Introduction to User Research
- HCDE 318: Introduction to User-Centered Design
I School courses
- INFO 331: Introduction to Information Architecture
- INFO 362: Visual Information Design
Additional Requirements
- Minimum 15 credits of upper-division courses
- Minimum 2.00 cumulative GPA in courses applied toward the minor
- Minimum 20 credits taken in residence at UW Seattle
Courses and Advising
Please visit the Humanities Academic Services Center to discuss a minor and your options for courses, as well as English-related internships, potential careers or other post-graduation plans, or areas of focus within your minor, such as language & rhetoric, expository or creative writing, genre studies, historical literary periods, literary theory & criticism, cultural studies, multicultural literature, literary modernism/postmodernism, gender studies, etc.
You can find detailed course descriptions for each quarter posted to our quarterly course offerings. These will provide you with information about teaching faculty, themes, texts, etc.
You may also want to look at what qualities the Writing Minor is designed to help you practice and the goals that the writing minor has in mind for students.
Staying Connected
We hope you'll consider yourself part of the UW's English Department community. Please feel free to subscribe yourself to the English e-mail list, "like" us on Facebook, and seek assistance from our department at any time.