3 x 3 in Cullowhee

One of the important “service” responsibilities of academics is to write letters of recommendation.  For some people, this activity–because of the responsibility it entails–is daunting.  As a rhetorician, I pride myself on writing great letters of recommendation, but without becoming hyperbolic and without allowing the letter writing process to steal too much of my precious time.  Some colleagues recently informally asked me for my thoughts on writing letters of rec, and it seems like a topic of broad enough appeal to merit a blog post.  So here goes.

First, recognize that you don’t have to write a letter simply because you were asked to.  I have had sub-par students ask me for letters to competitive programs (actually I should rephrase that–students who performed at sub-par levels in my one class).  I’m entirely unwilling to inflate anything on behalf of a student–it is dishonest and risks my own professional reputation.  In such cases, you should politely decline to write the letter.  It’s up to you to provide reasons or not, but I don’t feel you are obligated in very many cases to provide your reasons as a matter of course.  You do a student more of a disservice by writing them a lukewarm letter than by declining to write a letter at all, so this is also in the student’s best interests.

Also, don’t assume that you always know best (though, most often you will).  One time I told a student applying to a graduate pharmacy program that I could only write her a lukewarm letter, based on her class performance.  She asked for the letter anyway, and ended up getting into her program.  She even sent me a ‘thank you’ note.  All’s well that ends well, I suppose.

Next, realize that within the letter of rec genre, there are several important subgenres.  I’ve tried to break them down here.  Obviously, others might categorize differently, and these categories are not entirely discreet, and likely overlap with one another.

• Letters for Awards or Honorifics — you may be asked to write such letters by a student, or by a fellow faculty member, or may be asked to initiate nominations yourself.  You might also write similar letters for faculty and staff at your own or other institutions.
• Letters for Admission to a Competitive Program Internal to Your University — student is applying to a program with a rigorous admissions process within your own institution, or perhaps a study abroad program
• Letters for Admission to Graduate Programs — student graduating and applying to a graduate or professional program, such as law school, PhD program, MBA
• Letters for Jobs — Congrats!  Your student has ambition and a plan, and wants you to help them land their dream job, or just a job.
• Letters for Competitive Scholarships and Funding Opportunities — these opportunities may arise through your own institution or through outside sources of support
• Letters for Colleagues in the Profession — Letters of recommendation for jobs, tenure, editorial positions, administrative postions, etc (note: being a junior faculty member, I have relatively little to contribute to discussions of this last category)

I think that simply realizing that these are semi-distinct genres, with slightly different expectations and demands, is the first step in writing a great letter. Readers may wish to offer revisions and additions to these categories in the comments section, perhaps?

Next, you need to be aware of the limitations of your endorsement.  If you are a graduate student, your letters will–for better or worse–carry less weight than those of a professor.  When I was a grad student, I would often inform students who asked me for letters of this power dynamic, and many of them would still ask that I write a letter on their behalf.  Because grad students tend to teach smaller classes, you may actually know the student better than most of their professors.  There are some situations in which one’s rank in the academy would make it inappropriate for them to write a letter, so be sensitive to that as well.  It’s still a hierarchy, y’all.

Often, especially if a student is applying to some sort of an academic program, there will be an evaluation sheet you are asked to fill out along with your letter.  These sheets will often have you use Likert scales to evaluate your student in several qualitative categories.  I always fill these sheets out before writing my letter, because I feel the sheets give at least a general indication of what qualities the program is looking for in successful candidates.

Ask students to provide the work they did in your class (ideally with your original comments) and/or relevant materials well in advance of the letter deadline.  I tell students at the beginning of the semester that if they ever ask me for a letter of rec that the first thing I will request is the work they produced in my class.  I also ask student to let me know after their application process how things turned out.  I just like to know what happened.

Be specific as hell in your letter.  This is part of the reason for requiring students to provide you with that past work, so you can be specific in your remarks on behalf of the student. I think this is the most important piece of advice.  I try to be as specific as possible about the student’s work and potential, and to contextualize my thoughts about the student.  If I can, I speak as directly as possible to how I think the student would succeed in the specific program (or type of program) that they are applying to.  I think  that in terms of advice, this element is sort of “trump,” the most important thing.

Budget your time and your space.  The higher the stakes of the letter for the student, the more time you should budget, but you still have to stay within reason and protect your own time.  Many, many letters can be written effectively in just one page, and it is the very, very rare letter that should run over two pages.  Budget a length for the letter.  Then budget your time.  I budget my time savagely, knowing I will rarely stay within the budget.  But tasks have that tendency of swelling to the amount of time we set aside for them, and then some.

Use letterhead.  Proofread.  Present attractive document design.  Your letter needs to look, as a physical object, sharp and professional, whether it is going out as hardcopy or softcopy.  If you’re sending a softcopy version, get your department’s electronic letterhead.  Looks, well all know, matter.

Realize the limits of your responsibilities.  If your student is a worthy candidate, they won’t be difficult to endorse in meaningful ways.  But your letter is only part of the total application package.  It’s not your responsibility to “get the student in.”  Your responsibilities are finite.  I think letter writing is most daunting when we feel large responsibilities toward a student we really want to help.  But that can be overwhelming.  Try, however is best for you, to keep things in perspective.  Unless your student is on death row and trying to get a stay of execution, your letter is not a life and death matter.

I *think* it’s very important to state early in the letter how long, how well, and from what context you know the student.  I think though that is also appropriate to talk about other parts of the student’s life when appropriate.  For example, you will obviously speak to the student’s performance in your own class(es).  But, if you know that the student founded a campus charity organization, and that information is relevant, you could certainly speak about that, within the bounds of your actual knowledge from talking to the student, etc.

I think that people should also be aware that, as a teacher, it’s not up to you to decide what’s best for a student.  For example, I recently had a very good student ask for a letter of rec so she can transfer out of my institution.  I will be sorry to see her leave our school, because she is a good student and appears to me to be a good person.  I expressed that to her, and tried to remind her about some of our wonderful programs, but of course agreed to write the letter, and a good one, for her.  She has her own reasons for wanting to transfer, and it’s not my place to pass judgment on the validity of those reasons.

One important thing to note is that because I am a junior faculty member, I’ve been on the receiving end of very few letters of recommendation.  I cannot really speak from that very, very important perspective yet.  Perhaps to really get a grasp on good letter of rec writing, one should talk to a senior faculty member who has had to read a lot, and a lot of varieties of, letters of recommendation.

This last bit may be a bit too earnest for some readers, but I do feel very strongly in the “value” of my name, and am quite cautious about essentially using my name to endorse students in ways I’m not 100% comfortable with.  I take letter writing very seriously, but I think there are plenty of good reasons to decline to write a letter.  However, if you never write letters, particularly for your undergraduate students, you probably are not standing on principles but just being lazy or a jerk.  In a very general way, writing letters is part of your duties, and a responsibility that shouldn’t be shirked.  I really enjoy writing letters of recommendation, because I feel comfortable with the genre, budget my time for them strictly, and probably most of all because I think I’m capable of helping deserving students to advance their lives in meaningful ways.  (Sorry, but I warned that this paragraph might sound too earnest.  I stick by it though.)

I was recently asked to write a letter on behalf of a full professor who has been nominated for a named chair that honors excellence in undergraduate teaching.  I was asked to write the letter not as a professor, but as a former student of the nominee.  But just the same, being able to write a letter on behalf of someone who has done a lot of good in my life and career was extremely rewarding.  We don’t often get the chance to pay back such kindnesses so directly.  And it made me feel very, very professorial.

In a future post I’ll try to collect and put up some others’ thoughts on this genre and how to write letters of rec, but this is all I have time for right now.