A Guide for Faculty, Graduate Student Instructors, and Staff
http://www.cpp.umich.edu/students/refletter/writingguide/index.html
An excellent guide to writing recommendation letters from Career
Services at the University of Michigan. Covers preparation, process,
and legal/ethical issues. Includes specific sections for medical
and law school recommendations.
A Faculty Guide to Ethical and Legal Standards in Student Hiring
http://www.naceweb.org/committee/whitepapers/Facultyguide.doc
Again from NACE. Discusses the faculty role in the student recruiting
process more generally.
Ten Commandments for Writing Recommendation Letters
http://newsletter.fulbrightonline.org/older_newsletters/www.imakenews.com/
fulbright/e_article000296060.html
Basic guidelines from Fulbright; quite funny, actually; (adapted
from Writing Recommendation Letters: A Faculty Handbook; see below).
In Pursuit of the Perfect Letter of Reference
http://aslo.org/phd/referenceletters.html
From a rather specific professional organization in the sciences,
but the advice is applicable to all academic fields. Geared towards
recommendations for further academic pursuits, including grants
and fellowships.
Recommendation Letters
http://www.comcol.umass.edu/onsa/recommendationletters.html
From the Office of National Scholarship Advisement at UMass Amherst’s
Commonwealth College, this guide is geared towards letters in support
of prestigious scholarship or fellowship applications; includes
tips based on feedback from letters submitted on behalf of students
whose applications were accepted, as well as samples of a weak
and strong letter.
Letters of Recommendation for Graduate School for Faculty
http://www.dickinson.edu/career/files/lettersofrecforfaculty.pdf
Created by Harvard College, this guide has suggestions for what
to include, a list of information/documentation to gather from
the student, how to handle difficult cases, tips on format and
style, and samples.
Guidelines for Writing Recommendations
http://career.berkeley.edu/Letter/LetterGuidelines.stm#academic
UC Berkeley’s Career Center offers this list of questions
faculty should address in writing recommendations for academic
graduate school applications, as well as those for business school,
law school, health professions school, and medical school.
For Faculty Reps, from the Foundation: Letters of Recommendation
http://www.truman.gov/fac_reps/
fac_reps_show.htm?cat_id=477&doc_id=247591
What helps and what hurts in a letter of recommendation, directly
from the mouths of selection panel members at the Harry S. Truman
Scholarship Foundation.
How to Write a Letter of Recommendation
http://www.aaup.org/publications/Academe/2005/05ja/05jafelt.htm
Need a break from writing all those letters? This humorous piece
in AAUP’s Academe from a fellow faculty member satirizes
the process. For entertainment only!
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