I remember how much I used to stress over my letter of recommendation when I was getting into grad school. Letters of recommendation are magical things. In them, someone you respect could praise you to the stars or crush you to the ground. I had never thought about the fact that one day, I would be writing my very first letter of recommendations for one of my students. I had finally made it, but I had a new challenge to face.
It is assumed that all teachers are good at letter writing, but this is not the case. Even us English teachers have our difficulties sometimes. You see, we have gotten so used to an Internet age that sometimes the fine art of letters escapes those of us who should be most in command of it. Working on that letter of recommendation, I remember the fear and trepidation that I felt when I had asked for my first letter. I was feeling it again, only from the other side. How could I write the perfect letters of recommendation?
I knew that I would be able to tell a good letter of recommendation from a bad one, but I was a little bit unsure about certain formalities. Was it supposed to be an extremely formal letter, or was there room to share anecdotes about the student? I decided to look at some letter of recommendation examples.
It is amazing what you can find on the Internet. As an English teacher, I am often critical of all of the writing samples online, but now I was overjoyed. Unlike what some of my students do with their papers, I was not going to cheat and download a letter of recommendation to pirate wholesale. On the contrary, I was simply looking for stylistic cues and a place to begin.
Eventually, I found what I needed, but it took some time. Most of the letters of recommendations online were awful. I had probably run through a dozen of them before I came across my first decent letter of recommendation. It wasn't good but it was, as I have said, decent. It showed me how it's done, and refreshed my memory on certain long neglected skills that I used to possess. I dissected that letter of recommendation and found out what made its heartbeat. I judged it and looked at where it worked and where it didn't. Finally, I was ready to begin!
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