Rec letter recs?

[drwex]

One of my minions has asked for a recommendation letter for their grad school application. I'm looking for guidelines and advice on how to write a good letter - what should go in, what length am I aiming for, etc.

If you've written these things, do you have examples you can share? If you've asked for them, were there things that you thought were good/bad in the letters you got?

Comments

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

It's been such a long time since I had to do this that I'll just point you at this instead. (Yes, of course you could have found that on your own. I wanted to be helpful, realized that my knowledge wasn't exactly current, and am leaving you a placebo to assuage my desire to be helpful. ;-D)

[c1.livejournal.com]

If you've asked for them, were there things that you thought were good/bad in the letters you got?

Hands down, the best letter written on my behalf was dripping with enthusiasm and quantifiable veracity*. I was quite literally moved almost to the point of tears, because my professor wrote of specific things I did and how those actions made a positive impact; in short, there was not even a hint of a question left in my mind as to whether or not a. he noticed, or b. cared.

I'd keep it to a page. Whomever is reading it has a lot of things on their plate.

*I described it as such so as to differentiate from mere hyperbole. "He did a, which resulted in b." Specific, measurable, articulable.

[sandhawke.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I've read maybe a dozen grad school application letters (for successful applicants) and they were all full of specific stories of great things the person did.

The admissions system I'm familiar with has admissions reviewer summarize the recommendation into a few words about the reviewers credentials and connection, and then a numberic rating which peaks at "Best in 10 years". So you'll make this information more accurate if you begin or end with a simple statement of that data. I saw sentences like "In my 28 years as a professor at X, I've only seen 3 other candidates of Y's caliber. This is based on having Y in three of my classes and as an undergraduate research assistant for two semesters."

One more thing I liked when I saw it in letters, that may not apply to you, was something like, "I'm selfishly hoping Billy will chose to stay here and do his PhD with us, but of course he deserves to make his own choice among the best options. You'd be very lucky to have him." But I wasn't actually helping with the admission decision, so I've no idea if that kind of thing helps or not.

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

This may be completely inapplicable, but I know when I was getting rec letters (and I've seen this in other recommendations), I chose a spread of writers to reflect different aspects of me and my qualifications. So you may want to ask if your minion has anything specific in mind they were hoping you would address.