Skip to main content
Faculty Collaborative for Teaching Innovation

Writing letters of recommendation

  1. Home
  2. Office of the Provost and EVP
  3. Teaching and Learning
  4. Faculty Collaborative for Teaching Innovation
  5. Digital Resources for Teaching (DRT)
  6. Supporting Students
  7. Writing letters of recommendation

Letters of Recommendation

Do you feel like you spend too much time working on your letters of recommendation? Do you want to know how to write letters that are really going to make a difference in your students' applications? 

The Office of Student Fellowships reviews more than one hundred recommendations each year and we’ve helped many faculty members improve their letters. This DRT page is designed to help you write better letters of recommendation more efficiently.

Getting Started

To streamline the process of writing recommendations, we provide the following suggestions: 

  • Request that the applicant provide you with contextualizing information (you can save even more time by creating a Google form or email template with this request). 
    • Ask for the deadline and clearly communicate how long you need - 2 weeks’ notice is standard.   
    • Ask for a link to the description of the opportunity itself as well as any instructions for recommenders - e.g. how the program wants letters to be submitted.
    • Have the applicant share the materials that they’ll be submitting for the opportunity - statement of purpose, transcript, résumé, etc.
    • Encourage the candidate to provide examples of times when you have witnessed them demonstrating the qualities associated with the opportunity.
  • Review the opportunity and put yourself in the shoes of the committee who will be evaluating the application. Keep in mind that those folks will be the audience for your writing.
  • Beyond the examples that the student supplied, brainstorm times when you have witnessed the student demonstrate attributes associated with the opportunity.
  • If you have reservations about writing a strong letter of recommendation, have an honest conversation with the student as soon as possible. It is always OK to tell a student that you cannot write a strong letter on their behalf, and a tepid endorsement may do more harm than good. 

Recommendation Components

Most recommendation letters proceed as follows (but do pay close attention to the instructions and criteria of the particular program for which you are writing):

Beginning

  • An expression of pleasure at being able to recommend the applicant
  • Very brief self-introduction 
  • Capacity and context in which you know the applicant 
  • Length of time you have known the applicant 
  • Assessment of the applicant compared to a reference group (quantified, if possible) 

Middle

  • Assessment of the applicant's qualifications, supported by evidence 
  • Assessment of the applicant’s fit with the opportunity they are seeking
  • Evaluation of the applicant's potential to succeed in and contribute to their chosen field 

End

  • A reaffirmation of the recommendation and expression of confidence in the applicant

General Guidance

  • Tailor letters to specific opportunities. In your recommendation, focus on the purpose, values, and desired candidate characteristics associated with the opportunity. Stress the ways that the applicant meets these criteria.
  • When possible, tell stories. Avoid adjectives that are not supported by examples. Anecdotes that exemplify qualities desired by the program will provide the most powerful support for the applicant.
  • Place the applicant in context relative to other students you’ve worked with. You can do this with percentiles or simply by pointing out ways that the applicant stood above their peers. Most programs want some indication that the applicant is special in some way.
  • Avoid implicitly biased language related to aspects of a student’s identity.
    • Consider how you are describing a student and whether you would use the same language for a student of a different identity. Pay special attention to the adjectives you might unintentionally use to describe students of different identities.
    • Focus on demonstrated skills and accomplishments, rather than characterizations of personalities or effort, and avoid qualifiers and references to stereotypes.
    • Use the student’s preferred name and pronouns, and be conscious of how they hope to be represented and what aspects of their identity they do or do not want to disclose.
  • Use the space provided. Letters that fall well short of the space allotted may be perceived as damning with faint praise. Letters that are too long may not be read in their entirety.
  • Heed formatting requirements. 
    • Know if you are writing a letter or responding to a questionnaire.
    • Note limits on pages, words, or characters. 
    • For letters, use official letterhead and include a signature. 

Sample Letters

The following are examples of letters tailored to different kinds of programs (note that these samples are intended to guide faculty and should not be shared with others, especially students):

If you do not already have SCU letterhead, consider downloading and personalizing this template.

 

Page authors:

Matthew Harrigan, Department of Political Science, Office of Student Fellowships
Loring Pfeiffer, Department of English, Office of Student Fellowships