How to write a letter of recommendation

by Michael Ernst (mernst@cs.washington.edu)
October, 2002

(Also see my advice on requesting recommendation letters, and Shriram Krishnamurthi's advice to graduate school recommendation letter writers.)

At the beginning of the letter, say how well you know the person, for how long, and how you became acquainted. Also give an overview or summary of your recommendation.

Be specific. Don't just praise the person with generalities (such as “quick learner”), but give specific stories or anecdotes about things the person did to give you that impression. A letter that praises a person without being concrete comes across as a tepid recommendation. Rankings in class are another example of a helpful specific.

Differentiate. Say how this person is unlike other people: his or her specific strengths.

Compare. When writing to someone who shares context with you, name names. (“In the top 5% of the class” is OK, but much better is “Equivalent in promise to my former students Donny Knuth and Al Turing, but a notch below Johnny von Neumann.”)

Be plausible. Don't make the person out to be perfect. Often a letter just ignores shortcomings, but then the letter lacks credibility; writing such letters will hurt people you recommend in the future. If the person has shortcomings, admit them or note some ways the person can improve, particularly if the person has started to overcome those problems. Don't make up faults nor magnify real ones.

State your own qualifications. How many other people have you seen who are of the caliber expected by the reader? (For a recommedation to a top-10 school such as UW, the recommendation will carry more weight if the recommender has spent time at a top-10 school. Only someone with first-hand experience can give a truly accurate assessment.) These qualifications are probably best-suited to a postscript, though sometimes they are written as the first paragraph to establish credibility.

Justify your recommendations. Don't write a statement like "The applicant is definitely qualified for your institution/award/program" (especially with "your institution" verbatim as in a form letter, not substituted by an actual name). This weakens rather than strengthens the letter, because the reader will assume that the form letter was sent to many places, and the statement cannot be true of every recipient.

Don't be too brief. One paragraph, or two short paragraphs, is the kiss of death. (If you don't know the student well, and don't have much to say, add a short paragraph explaining what the course is and why it's good that the student excelled in it. This won't fool most people, but will soften the blow of a short letter.) However, don't ramble: make it succinct and to the point. Whoever reads your letter is probably reading hundreds of other letters. If the key points of yours do not pop out, or the reader wearies midway through your letter, then your letter will net be effective.

For situations where the letter has a disproportionate impact (e.g., for faculty applications), or if you are new to recommendation-writing, treat your letter like any other important piece of writing: get feedback from others.

If you are requested to provide a letter in PDF, provide the original PDF that was created by your word processor or typesetting program. Don't scan the document, which degrades the visual quality and makes it much harder to read. No one really cares whether your original signature is on the letter, so you can insert a scanned signature into the PDF or even use a typewritten signature. You don't want eyestrain (or anything else) to lessen the impact of your letter. For similar reasons, don't use "watermark" letterhead that puts a large, dim image (for example, of your university crest or logo) behind your text. You may think this looks cool and sets your letter or institution apart, but in fact it makes your letter harder to read without impressing anyone.

Mayfield Handbook: Writing Letters of Recommendation

(The Mayfield Handbook is compilation of suggestions and style tips useful for all types of writing. The following is from its “Writing Letters of Recommendation” section.)

Write letters of recommendation to provide relevant information and to present an individual truthfully and positively.

Guidelines for Writing Letters of Recommendation

Before writing the letter:

• In most cases, agree to write a letter of recommendation only if you can honestly write a supportive letter. If you cannot portray an individual positively, decline to write the recommendation.
• Ask for a current resume and as complete a description as possible of the position or program to which the person is applying.
• Assemble and review all other relevant information you may have about the person you are recommending. It is often easy to overlook some important accomplishment.

Writing the letter:

• Present the person truthfully but positively. A recommendation that paints an unrealistic picture of a candidate may be discounted. A recommendation that focuses on negative qualities may do more harm than intended.
• Tailor the recommendation to the position. A letter recommending an individual for a job as a camp counselor should contain different information from that in a letter recommending the same individual for a job as a computer programmer.
• Begin the letter by describing how you know the individual you are recommending and the specific contexts upon which you are basing your evaluation. In what situations have you known the individual? For how long? How closely?
• Present the individual's general qualities relevant to the position along with one or two detailed examples. Including vivid detail will make the recommendation much more effective.
• In most cases, a letter of recommendation should consist of three or four paragraphs and not be over one page in length.

A bad recommendation letter

Here is a real example of a letter of recommendation that I received for a PhD applicant. An eminent faculty member first sent a content-free recommendation letter, so I asked for more information. This was the response. You can see that this letter, though positive on its face, violates nearly every rule about writing a recommendation letter. It saddens me that lack of thoughtfulness on the part of the advisor meant that we had to reject the student's application (though it's possible that the advisor truly thought the student was unworthy and was signaling this obliquely via the letter).

Dear Prof. Ernst:

It is my pleasure to write this letter and recommend [omitted], one of my
favorite students, for the admission to the Co-PhD Study Program at your
laboratory.

[omitted] is an enthusiastic and progressive young man with extremely high
potentialities. He is not only quick at learning and good at solving
complicated problems, but also with a logical and creative mind that
enables him to raise some insightful views. I was also deeply impressed
with his diligence and outstanding communication ability, compared with my
other students. What's more, he is an optimistic man with pleasant
personality, and gets along well with all the people around him. I hope he
could further broaden his vision and accumulate research and programming
experience to get him more fruitful.

I believe in your laboratory, which possesses a wonderful research
foundation for program analysis and software security, his excellent
competence, coupled with your preeminent guidance, will assure him of
academic achievements in his future academic pursuits.

Thanks for your letter, if you have any other questions, please contact me
freely.

[Signature]

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