Building on the foundation laid by the popular earlier print editions of his faculty handbook on writing recommendation letters, Joe Schall digs deeper in this new online edition, addressing issues ranging from the ethical considerations faculty wrestle with when writing letters to the new challenges posed by the information age. Citing sources ranging from The Chronicle of Higher Education to refereed journal articles to excerpts from listserv discussions among scholarship directors, this handbook advises faculty on the best practices when writing letters for students, as well as informs writers about nine of the nation’s top scholarships and the detail that selectors crave in winning scholarship reference letters.
Joe Schall was the Giles Writer-in-Residence for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State from 1988 until 2008. He received an M.A. in English from Penn State in 1988 and a B.S. in English Education from Juniata College in 1981. He has won numerous honors for his writing and teaching, including the Bobst Award for Emerging Writers from New York University and the Wilson Award for Outstanding Teaching from Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. His publications range from short stories to style guides (Writing Personal Statements Online [1] and Style for Students Online [2]). He has published articles about writing in a wide variety of magazines, including Graduating Engineer and Computer Careers, Writers' Forum, and Academe. By invitation, he has taught writing workshops on the subjects of his style guides at over 20 schools, including Pepperdine University, MIT, Roanoke College, SFSU, and the University of Southern Mississippi. Joe Schall is currently a Health Communications Specialist for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
This manual is available for free use by students, faculty, and other interested parties, and the intention is to make this material as widely available as possible. For those interested in obtaining permission to use any material herein, the rules are spelled out by the creative commons license [3].
Comments on this manual are welcomed and can be directed to the author at schall@ems.psu.edu [4].
Over 35 years ago, a few months after I graduated from college, I was surprised to receive a packet in the mail one day containing copies of letters of recommendation my professors had written for me. Even though I had waived my right to see the letters, I had used a placement service that helped graduates apply for teaching jobs, and once I had my first teaching job I cancelled my use of the service. By what I assume was an administrative error, copies of all my job application materials, including my recommendation letters, were then sent to me. Once I realized that I was looking at my own confidential letters of recommendation, I had an ethical decision to make. Should I destroy the letters, return them, or read them?
Of course I read them, and what I learned about how others saw me was illuminating. I discovered that I was a fine teacher, of average intellect, a “determined fellow with a highly evolved work ethic,” and a “good sport” (that from my rugby coach). The letters were candid, warm, and personal—I’d chosen my recommenders well and attended a small school where faculty got involved with their students. And I’d gotten my first teaching job, presumably helped by these letters. Even though I’d come to read these letters seemingly by accident, the process seemed tidy and the system worked.
Since then, I’ve learned just how complex the process can be. I’ve realized that graduate students, not just professors, are asked to write letters, and that some faculty report writing more than a thousand letters during their careers. I’ve realized that students are often unsuccessful at communicating to their references the criteria by which they will be judged. I’ve talked to faculty who’ve been befuddled by the process of having to submit their letters online, or who are surprised that they’ve been asked to rewrite a letter for a student by a scholarships advisor—in fact, they’ve mused, they’ve never even heard of a scholarships advisor.
For me, the formal process of writing this handbook began through Penn State’s newly hired scholarships advisor a decade ago. She asked me to put together a guide that she could share with faculty, offering me access to over 300 letters written by faculty to help me generate material. As I reviewed these letters, I became more and more convinced that there are concrete standards for good letter writing that should be articulated, and that by showcasing some of the best letters I reviewed I could point the way to helping faculty help their students get jobs, earn admission to graduate schools, and win scholarships.
Meanwhile, as this handbook grew in popularity, I was invited to guest lecture on the subject at schools ranging from College of the Holy Cross to Pepperdine University, and in the process I gained access to more letters from faculty at various schools and discussed the subject openly. As a result, I have seen some really bad letters of recommendation. I've seen otherwise stylish letters narrating tediously long explanations or discussing the letter writer’s qualifications to the point that the person being recommended is virtually invisible. I recall a silly recommendation letter extolling the virtues of a candidate’s racquetball playing abilities at great length, a letter from a department head riddled with embarrassing typos and usage errors, and a whole batch of letters that were directed at the wrong scholarship because the candidate had misinformed his recommenders about the name of the scholarship. In a worst-case scenario, I saw a letter from a school’s Board of Trustees member that included the line “I imagine he would be a good candidate for a Rhodes and Marshall” (um, they're two different scholarships). In each of these cases, the letters themselves ended up undermining the individual being recommended, or at least distracting those reading the letters to the point of annoyance.
This handbook provides a look at how we might go about writing letters for students, particularly as they apply for some of the nation’s most prestigious scholarships. My intentions are to set forth the criteria that employers and committees use as they evaluate candidates, to offer sample letters for your study, and to help faculty help students in approaching them properly as they seek letters of reference. I share with you the goal of finding ways to use your time effectively as you guide students to develop and realize their ambitions.
—Joe Schall,
August 2016
This handbook would not have been possible without the warm support of many. I am indebted first to Mary Gage and Tineke Cunning, both former directors of Penn State’s Undergraduate Fellowships Office, and John Dutton and John Cahir, both former Deans of Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. These individuals provided active support as this handbook evolved and shared with me the goal of improving faculty recommendation letters. Many scholarships advisors across the country, particularly members of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors [5] (NAFA), offered assistance and actively promoted the use of this handbook. I am also grateful to the faculty and graduate students from various schools—unnamed to protect their identities—who gave permission for their letters to be printed here. There is no substitute for reading real letters written for real students, and many of the letters here are the best I’ve ever seen.
The electronic edition of this handbook exists thanks to the creative support team at Penn State’s John A. Dutton e-Education Institute and the Institute’s Open Educational Resources (OER) Initiative [6]. I owe particular thanks to Jennifer Babb, Instructional Design Assistant, who laid out the book in Drupal [7] and taught me the basics of using the software, guiding me patiently through the process and always with a watchful eye for continuity, form, utility, and professionalism. Mark Wherley created the artistic interface for the manual, while Marty Gutowski integrated the interface and served as an excellent technical troubleshooter. These individuals, along with others who are part of the OER Initiative and collaborated on this project, have been an excellent support team.
Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/
[2] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/
[3] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
[4] mailto:schall@ems.psu.edu?subject=Writing%20Recommendation%20Letters%20Online
[5] http://www.nafadvisors.org/
[6] http://open.ems.psu.edu/
[7] http://drupal.org/