Recommendation Letters

If you want me to write a recommendation letter, please read over the following before you ask, and please follow these directions.

Completion of form

If the form requests information that must be supplied, and that you can discover on your own, then you are obligated to supply it.

Examples include my name, title, address, and phone, which are easily found on my web page.

If you do not fill in this information, I will not supply the recommendation.

Right to access

I will not write you a letter unless you waive your right to access the letter at each place you want a letter sent. If the recipient does not provide a means for you to waive your right of access, I will not send a letter.

A recommendation letter is a privileged correspondence between the writer and the reader. Even though the letter I write would be the same whether you waive access or not, the institution cannot view it as an open and honest correspondence if the student can access the letter.

If I thought my letter would do you more harm than good, I would inform you of this before I wrote such a letter.

About you

Please provide me a resume or C.V. so I can make sure I don't omit important information about you. I recommend including campus and extracurricular activities.

Provisioning

You must provide addressed and stamped envelopes for any physical letters I agree to write and mail. These letters must go directly to the institution. I will not hand or mail you any letters.

For letters I agree to send electronically, you must provide me a plain-text email (no attachments) of the places you want the letters sent.