Countersign Community Service Letter of Recommendation Made Easy

Esign letter of recommendation template for coworker

[Music] when you ask for a letter of recommendation you usually expect one of two responses yes or no sometimes however things can be a little more complicated than that instead of a straightforward yes or no sometimes your professor will ask for you to write your own letter of recommendation for them to review and sign so today I want to talk to you a little bit about this and give you some tips on content and structure for writing your own letter of recommendation first hi my name is dr. Sarah Cleve and I'm an admissions expert at so you've taken the step of asking for a letter of recommendation a lot of students find this really stressful especially the first time I know the first time I had asked for a letter of recommendation I was absolutely terrified I was asking for a letter from a professor I'd worked with for years I had been a student for years I've been in half a dozen courses with them I've done well in all of them we got along really well we talked in office hours and all of that but I was still terrified that he was going to say no so if you've come out of this sort of stressful situation and gotten an answer that you didn't expect sure write your own letter of recommendation that can be a little disorienting a little confusing and so I want to walk you through this a little bit first and foremost I want to encourage you to think of this as an opportunity write usually letters of recommendation are completely confidential students don't see them they don't see anything that's in them they have no idea what's been said about them back a hundred years ago or so when I was applying to grad school and getting my first letters of recommendation we still did everything in hard copy and so I remember professors would have to you know print out their letter sign it put it in an envelope and then sign across the seal of the envelope the closed seal of the envelope so that it was absolutely certain that the student hadn't pride in and litera letter of recommendation some professors would still let students see the letters that they were writing for them but that wasn't terribly common so in this instance if you're being asked to write your own letter recommendation you get to see what's in it right I mean the professor still has the right to edit it change it delete things add things whatever they want but you still have some idea of what's going into your letter and so that can be a really positive thing if you're approaching a particular professor because you really really hope that they'll speak to certain qualities that you have certain projects that you've done and things like that if you're writing your own letter of recommendation or at least the draft of it you don't have to guess you can make sure that those things make it into the letter because you can put them there so having some say in this can be really really useful so please look at it as an opportunity it might be intimidating I'll break down some things that'll help you work through it in just a minute but overall it can be a really positive experience that acts to your benefit one thing that I also want to just quickly note is that if you get a response like this to your request for a letter of recommendation it doesn't reflect poorly on you at all usually if a professor makes a request of this kind it just is because they're overworked they want to support your application but they just don't have time to write the letter so if you get this request it doesn't reflect poorly or negatively on you it doesn't mean that they don't really want to support your application or anything like that don't worry if a professor doesn't want to recommend you they're not going to agree to recommend you whether they're writing the letter or you're writing the letter and so don't think that this in any way means that they aren't invested in your success or you know that they don't want you to to get into the program that you're applying to it's not that at all if anything it's that they really want to be able to support you but they simply don't have the time so don't let this crush your confidence or anything like that another thing just before I get into tips really quickly do note that you are allowed to say no if you're really really uncomfortable with the idea of writing your own like letter recommendation in any way even with the professor reviewing it and editing editing it afterwards it's it's fine to say no they're not gonna be offended or anything like that as long as you're respectful and polite about it it's completely within your right to say that you would prefer not to do that you can also find sort of middle ground if you're not comfortable actually composing a literal letter but you don't want to say no either you can give them a list of bullet points and maybe a copy of your application essay if if applicable so that they have something to start with to work with to build on as opposed to just you know the sort of blank page in front of them so again if there are certain things that you hope that they would include in your letter you can include those as part of a list of bullet points or just you know specific kinds of ideas qualities projects that you want them to refer to so with those said let me give you some quick tips on content and structure for a letter of recommendation first in terms of content it's really important that you're able to acknowledge your accomplishments students are often really uncomfortable given giving themselves praise and and things like that but you know becoming a mature professional means being able to look honestly at the things that you've done with your academics and you know extracurriculars and things like that so far and being able to identify when you have done things genuinely well when you've had positive accomplishments and things like that so you know noting your academic excellence research projects that you've done maybe volunteering service extracurriculars if the professor would be aware of those things and able to speak to them those are all fine things to talk about in your application that said you also want to make sure that you are humble in doing so and maintaining that degree of humility first make sure that your ensures that you're going to represent a professorial voice effectively it is highly unlikely that any professor is ever going to say something like the student is by far the most impressive hyper intelligent most promising student I've ever taught in all my years of teaching that's just not what letters of recommendation sound like that's not the kind of content that they have those also aren't really particularly useful descriptors and I'll talk more about that in a minute so you know it's not the language of a letter of recommendation the content there isn't actually very useful there isn't actually much content to terms like you know outstanding student promising student etc but also you know if you can't say without an absolute doubt that you actually are the best student the top student that this professor has ever taught then making a claim like that would be sort of really over the top it would be an excessively bold claim to make that could end up reflecting negatively on you so by all means acknowledge your accomplishments and be honest about them but also be humble maintain that sense of humility it'll make sure that you get the tone right the kinds of wording right consistent with letters of recommendation and it'll also make sure that you don't sort of overstep any boundaries my second tip in terms of content be specific don't try to cover everything know one letter of recommendation is going to refer to every accomplishment you've ever had or every positive quality that you possess first off they're just usually not long enough to do that and I'll talk about length more in just a minute but also that will just kind of ramble on you want to focus on two to three major themes or qualities that that particular letter writer could speak to effectively because of their actual relationship with you so you know talking about say your extracurriculars if your professor has never heard anything about your extracurriculars has no idea what you do as extracurriculars that wouldn't be relevant instead think about the kinds of qualities you've demonstrated in their courses and in any projects that you've done with them think about how those align with the key values and competencies of the discipline to which you are applying and sort of bring those two worlds together a quick note in terms of length generally blood letters of recommendation aren't longer than one single spaced page so that gives you an idea of how much content you have to work with that's why I say use two to three major themes or qualities because that's going to give you around two to three body paragraphs and that's going to be about one single spaced page my third tip in terms of content is to avoid cliches and empty descriptor terms as we always recommend for things like personal essays and application essays and things like that you want to show not tell so first off when I said those terms earlier weren't very useful saying that a student is the most impressive or the most promising student saying that someone is impressive saying that someone is promising actually doesn't say much of anything because you're not demonstrating how and why someone is impressive or has promised excuse me similarly let me give you an example when I was in my early years of my PhD I had the opportunity to participate in a hiring search for our department so generally hiring committees in university departments will be composed of scholars in that department usually you know often a scholar - from outside the department but in a related field and a lot of times graduate students at one graduate student or maybe two will be able to sit on that committee as well and so I was on this hiring committee and I remember sitting in the department chairs office this big beautiful office wood paneling all of that I was very awestruck surrounded by all of these scholars and were pouring through just thousands of pages of applications and as we were all reading through one candidates letters of recommendation the department chair lets out this huge sigh he says oh dear oh he called her a hard worker talk about the death knell for your application and everyone else in the room let out this very knowing laugh and I was very confused I was 20 but probably 25 years old first time ever doing anything like this first time reading letters of recommendation and I was I was really really confused as to why it would be a bad thing to be a hard worker and so I built up the courage to actually ask why everyone was laughing what on earth was wrong with being a hard worker and they explained that there isn't anything wrong with being a hard worker of course I mean if you're going to excel in academia you have to work hard the problem was that the term was cliche and that it was imprecise right if the best praise that someone can give you is to say that you're a hard worker that's kind of seeing those unfortunate from the the insider perspective from the perspective of those reading letters of recommendation and instead of using those kinds of empty terms again you want to show not tell so for example if you do consider yourself a hard worker don't write in the letter the student is a hard worker instead you would want to give examples and anecdotes using narrative to discuss times when you went above and beyond when you were able to successfully juggle multiple pressing responsibilities when you were able to put in the extra time and dedication necessary to complete a substantial project or something like that this is going to be much more effective than cliches and empty terminology so again instead of saying someone is a promising student for example give examples of why you think that student or why you know you think the professor thinks you have promised what does it mean to have promised well it usually means to take initiative to show capacity for improvement to show a critical capacity of an ability to collaborate with others and think of things through multiple perspectives instead of saying this student has promised use narrative use anecdote use examples to demonstrate the promise that you've shown that's an important difference and finally my last key in terms of your content you need to make sure that you review it very very carefully and verify that the grammar is flawless it is really unfortunately common for students to write these letters of recommendation or any number of other things send them in and have them be either grammatically incorrect or have typos and things like that again remember the dynamic that's at play in completing this request you're still asking this person to be a referee for your application you're asking for a formal evaluation of your suitability and so turning in something that is grammatically imprecise that has typos or other flaws isn't going to reflect positively on you so you know if you miss an apostrophe here or there that's probably not going to mean the difference between them recommending you and not recommending you but you want to make sure that you maintain professionalism throughout the process and that means ensuring that it is a polished gem of a document before you send it off and now just very quickly some tips on structure essentially a letter of recommendation is almost set up like a short essay a very short essay one single spaced page but a short essay nonetheless which is to say it generally has an introduction a body a conclusion and a thesis the thesis of the letter of recommendation quite is that you the student has the qualities and academic competence necessarily they're necessarily necessary to thrive in the program to which they are applying everything that you put into the letter should be organized around that central argument that you will thrive in this program the introduction essentially is the first paragraph of the letter where usually there's a unequivocal statement of support for the student's application an indication of how long the professor is known the student the capacity in which they've known them the courses they've taken together and things like that and an indication of why they are a suitable reference why they know you well enough to recommend you so that can again be speaking to projects that you've done though of course the length of time that they've known you the ways in which they've observed you succeeding excelling accomplishing the body is going to be usually two to three paragraphs again organized around those two to three key themes or qualities that you want this professor to speak to in their letter you want to make sure that you're using specific examples anecdotes drawing on narrative to pull the reader in and to show them these wonderful qualities rather than just telling them that you have those qualities you can talk about the qualities around your discipline in particular you can also talk about particular projects that you've taken on that have stood out research that you've done if you've worked as a TA or a tutor with the professor you can speak to that and anything else that really highlights your suitability for the profession from that professor's perspective and then finally the conclusion would be a closing paragraph one that usually reflects more on sort of personal attributes than academic accomplishments or qualities that facilitate academic success so you know if you have a a genuinely sort of friendly professional relationship with your professor and you feel that they can speak to who you are as a person whether you're easy to get along with whether you're a strong collaborator whether you have a positive outlook and growth mindset and things like that you can add those things in the conclusion and and honestly that might be the most sort of uncomfortable part for someone to write about so if you're not comfortable making those kinds of connections you could leave that for the professor to write on their own I remember one of my professors actually the professor that I was terrified to ask about the letter of recommendation actually let me read the letter that you wrote for me it was such a special moment in my life and I remember in the closing paragraph reading him say that he just genuinely liked me as a person and I started just crying I was so happy it was so lovely to see someone that I respected so much say something like that about me and so you know if you feel like you can make those kinds of evaluations you can but you also might feel that like they might be a little too private or personal and leave it to the professor to fill that in so however you decide to move forward after receiving a request to write your own letter of recommendation remember that ultimately they're going to have the final say whatever you put down they can edit they can add - they can remove it from they can tweak in any way they want or they can just sign it flat out it's up to them they will look it over to make sure that it's what it needs to be that it's in their accurate voice and all of that and you want to put sincere effort into what you are composing in terms of your draft but if the professor think there's things there's anything missing anything that should be worded differently anything that doesn't actually represent their perspective don't worry they're gonna edit it and make it what it needs to be so do consider taking this opportunity to ensure that your letter of recommendation says and does all the things that you hope it will say and do it might seem like an a really sort of weird request at the top when you first get the request but it's not all that uncommon and you can really take advantage of this and use it in your own at best interest so I hope that you enjoyed this video and that it was helpful if so please do go ahead like it share it with a friend who might benefit from it sure to follow us on whichever social media platform you're on right now if you'd like us to help you please do click the link that should appear either above or below this video to see our programs and schedule a free initial consultation we'll set you up with one of our admissions experts to answer any questions you might have and get you started on your preparations we have programs to suit any of your needs and we're always happy to work with you to determine which plan is going to support you and your goals most effectively as ever thank you so very much for your time take good care and I'll see you next time