Advanced Expression

NOTE: Students who started taking classes at Northwestern in Spring 2023 or earlier should refer to the Writing Proficiency page. The information below pertains to students who start at Northwestern after Spring 2023.

About the advanced expression requirement

Fulfillment of the Advanced Expression requirement is where students demonstrate high-level achievement in their ability to Express: articulate their ideas in oral, written, visual, digital, and other media, and assemble narratives, explanations, data, and arguments that navigate carefully ordered evidence. Some students demonstrate this level via their works in a language other than English. 

Courses that meet the AE requirement focus on effective communication, be it through writing, speaking or other modes of communication, in specific disciplinary or interdisciplinary contexts. Courses are typically 300-level and typically taken after the first year.

Learning objectives for AE

• understand and emulate field-specific conventions and protocols for communicating findings to a range of audiences
• develop the relationship between their voice and field-specific norms of expression, aiming to achieve control over persuasive rhetoric

Fulfilling the advanced expression requirement

Students may complete the advanced expression requirement through completion of an approved course with a grade of D or higher. As with the foundational disciplines and overlays, courses approved by a Weinberg College faculty committee are listed on the webpage (below) and may also be identified through the Undergraduate Catalog and the quarterly CAESAR class listings. Each year some courses are added to the list and others are deleted; a course must be on the approved list for the year you take it to satisfy the requirement.

A course that is used by a student to satisfy the advanced expression requirement may at the same time be applied towards a different requirement (such as a major requirement, minor requirement, foundational discipline, and/or overlay) if so approved.

2023-2024 AE COURSES

Information will be posted to this list as it becomes available. Some courses on the list will not be offered in 2023-24, but in a future year. A course approved for the advanced expression requirement and a foundational discipline area may be applied to both at the same time. Some courses on this list have prerequisites (for example fluency in a language other than English, or department permission).

Starting September 2023 please refer to the Undergraduate Catalog for full lists. This page will only include mid-year updates.

 ¹May also be applied towards a foundational discipline and/or an overlay; see tables.