I give context to the ethical issues surrounding letters of recommendation by summarizing three breaches of ethics by students:
All these are true accounts that I was privy to in my 20 years of university teaching, and they underscore just how desperate some students become about letters of recommendation, and how some will even take foolish risks just to find out what we’ve written about them.
I have encountered many more typical scenarios, though, where both student and letter writer are uplifted by the process:
These positive examples and others tell us that recommendation letters are not mere formalities involving “paying back favors” we once received from others, nor are they simply redundant paperwork we complete to help students advance—letters of recommendation offer us lessons about relationships (or their lack), growth, power and empowerment, professionalism, attitude, protocol, communication, ethos, and trust. To understand them fully, then, we must consider that the process and act of writing recommendation letters can have a powerful ethical component. This chapter is devoted to fleshing out the ethical issues related to recommendation letter writing, and offering proven strategies on how to address them.
The video and website below give solid broad overviews of issues to consider when you write recommendation letters:
How to Write an Effective Letter of Recommendation workshop
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Links
[1] http://peasoup.typepad.com/peasoup/2005/05/letters_of_reco.html