The CATESOL Journal

While many US colleges and universities offer specialized writing courses for multilingual students entering as freshmen, including international students, there is typically little instructional support for the academic English needs of international transfer students. This article describes the development and implementation of a writing course at a four-year university intended for upper-division multilingual transfer students, with focus on international students. Starting with the proposal stage, it summarizes consultations with administrators and faculty to procure funding, identify a target population, and seek input for defining course objectives. Description of course implementation includes syllabi, student profiles, and student feedback from course evaluations and writing portfolio introductions on the most helpful and most challenging aspects of the course. Student feedback offers suggestions for writing instruction in lower-division courses. In conclusion, this article recommends further development of specialized writing courses for upper-division international multilingual writers.