Hi, folks. I'm in the midst of Rec Letter Writing season for students applying to grad school (joy of joys!). Luckily, this year's crop of kids I'm writing for is pretty great, and they've chosen schools that are good fits for them and their abilities. I'd really like to see them get in to their chosen schools, and I want to write letters that will best help their chances.
Since we're a SLAC, we don't have many grad programs, so I never read rec letters other than those for job candidates.
Q: So my question is this: how informal/personal can my language be? Do I need to stick to the usual academic jargon-y bullshit? One of my students is a kid who has the ability to get shit done, no matter how many things he has going, and is willing to take the lead on projects even if he's already committed to others. He writes very well and is uber-responsible. He's easily the most "ready for the work world" student I've ever had, and I'll be sad to see him go, as he was the most productive work-study student our department ever saw. So that's the gist of what I would like to say straight out in his letter (substitute "stuff" for "shit"). Is that too informal? Should I stick to "Student X is a true self-starter with excellent writing skils who knows how to multi-task effectively," etc.? How much personality can I inject without putting off the readers?
Across the years, I've written enough LORs to have a nice stash of models to use as templates--if I agree to DO a letter, I've got something nice to say about you, so it's gonna be a decent letter. It's also likely to be pretty pro forma; most of my kiddoes have been one shade of laudable or another, and after 20+ years, it's fairly easy for me to find the parallel former student's letter to smoosh into new-kid's recommendation. All of those hundreds of letters stick to fairly predictable and broadly acceptable language.
ReplyDeleteThere is that rare child, though, who really has no peer, for whatever reason, and I have always chosen to go mondo on those letters (I once described a kid as "a red-headed wonder; a living, breathing Huck Finn of a boy"), and those are the letters that I get calls on. People appreciate getting them, as they tend to say something in a far more honest tone than the standard. Gee, just like letters of app and college entrance essays that break the pattern do...
I've read hundreds if not thousands of these, and my sense is the more detailed and personal the better. The silly season will start for me in January, and I'll read at least 30 or 40 letters that contain the exact words "true self-starter." So if you write that this person :gets stuff done" and can deploy a couple of specific examples, I will pay attention.
ReplyDeleteSpecific examples turn the trick every time for me. Say "self starter who gets things done" but also say "best work study student the department has had in a decade, reorganized the entire slide library and pretty much single-handedly ran a conference for us while he finished his senior thesis".
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