This morning I wrote a recommendation letter for a graduate student who is seeking a scholarship to help fund his studies. It was relatively easy for me to write -- not only because he's so good at what he does that singing his praises was simple, but also because I like to think I'm getting pretty good at writing these things. I even enjoy writing them, sometimes, because it is rejuvenating to be able to empower others who have earned it. After a good education, a good letter of endorsement is the best gift I can give a student who excels. And I pride myself on having success with them: almost every student I've recommended has gotten into graduate program, or received the award they deserved.

The thing is, no one ever taught me how to write them and it is rare for anyone in the profession to get formal training in the creation of this most important and powerful document. You sort of just pick it up by reading the genre and through practice. Luckily, in my past, my academic advisors kindly shared what they wrote about me with me, so I had a copy and I emulated them accordingly. Writing a number of them taught me the general formula for them, but I always write them from scratch, allowing my memories and my passion for the student's achievements to guide the composition. From reading these things in my service on hiring committees, I quickly learned that giving concrete examples of experiences is the most important element of a letter. So I do that with my students -- rather than just celebrating their achievements in abstract ways. Often, the reader of these things wants to judge for themselves a candidate's qualities; giving examples allows them to do so. I'll try to commit at least one paragraph to "narrating" an experience where the student impressed me most. If I have no memories of such an experience, I either refuse to write the letter or I write something very abstract -- and not too helpful, I imagine -- out of necessity.

When a student is desparate for a letter from me, and they're not a student I necessarily would have chosen to support in this way, I always give honest feedback, too. If a student had any major "issues" -- patterns of academic problems or issues that are still evident -- I feel it is my duty to report them and while I won't try to sink the student's career at all, I will invite a phone conversation if I feel that the student might be trouble. But I always find good things to say to at least give a balanced evaluation, letting the examples I select to include speak for themselves. (I'd give an example here, but I don't want to upset any students who might be reading). If students have acted aberrantly, I might include that information in an example. I know, too, that when a recommender writes a guarded review, that there are buzzwords and sly ways of allowing readers of these letters to read between the lines (there are parodic examples of this online). They can truly be forms of creative writing.

Although it's too late for the letter I wrote today, I just now did a little web searching to see what sort of advice is out there for writing these letters -- particularly when you want to do your best to get that student a job, an award, or a graduate program. I think the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard has the best overview of how to write rec letters (with lots of examples) and a general tipsheet that's also useful. (I also like the tipsheet at A2Z colleges). Michael Ernst earnest advice is quite sound. The examples at Michael Howell's "Winning Scholarships" page are generally good for writing employment letters and might be more appropriate for secondary education teachers. Monster.com -- the employment center of the web -- has some decent general advice for writing them, too.

Writing these things always gives me a moment to reflect. I always enjoy writing them. I've been teaching for something like 12 years now -- five years in my present position -- and as each year ticks by and more and more graduating seniors ask me to endorse them for jobs and graduate school apps. A handful of them come back to me asking for them again and again as they apply for new jobs or new programs, and I sometimes wonder: How many of these letters will I write in my lifetime? As earnest as I am about these students' talents, at what point do I cross the threshold and become a sort of "factory," mass producing them? A lot of requests generally come in at the same time of the year, in one big glob...and since I spend a lot of time composing or recomposing them, I wonder at what point does it become a workload issue? Since so much rides on their success, how much time is appropriate to dedicate to each one? And how many advisees will I have accumulated by the time I reach retirement? How many will "pay it forward," and go on to write their own letters some day?

I got an e-mail from a student I taught about ten years ago the other day -- after a stint in the theater, she's going into teaching. She told me she was partially inspired by my influence. A long term gain from teaching is seeing the impact you make on people's lives. And sometimes when you write these letters, they write back.

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