UNIT 5. RECOMMENDATION LETTER
Recommendation or reference letters play an essential role in academic communication. They usually accompany various kinds of applications (e.g., job, fellowship, or grant applications) and are written by the supervisors or colleagues of an applicant. One of the primary purposes of the recommendation letter is to share one's evaluation of the professional abilities and personal qualities of the applicant. While composing a letter of recommendation it is highly important to illustrtate the image of the applicant as a “whole person”, rather than focusing on fragments of who the applicant is based solely on his grades and test scores. A letter that expresses a strong support, as well as highlights an applicant’s academic, professional and personal strength, can have a powerful effect on that applicant’s chances of admission.
Starting a recommendation letter first you need to express your positive feeling about writing the letter. Then explain how long you have known the applicant and what your relationship has been (supervisor, coordinator, teacher, co-worker). The statements can be as follows:
• I am delighted to write in support of William Rosermate's application for the graduate program in the University of California.
• I am writing to give Alan Blant the highest possible recommendation for pursuing Master's Degree in Economics in the University of the West of Scotland.
• This letter offers my complete support of Morgan Potgale as he applies for a sub-speciality fellowship.
• I am honored to support John Midlow as a candidate for the position of Assistant Professor for the Department of Optics in the University of Montreal.
• I have no hesitancy in writing a letter of recommendation for Alexander Cold.
• I have known Ms. Smart since 2014, when she enrolled in my computer class.
• I have known Howard Bricks for two years now, since he completed my course in Functional Materials at Prinston University.
The following step is to discuss the applicant's qualifications for the studies in the chosen field. Statements of past achievements, accomplishments, and contributions are very helpful. The more relevant the abilities and skills mentioned, and the greater the detail, the better your letter will communicate your positive recommendation. General comments provide a neutral recommendation or suggest that you do not really recommend the person highly and hence should be avoided. Consider the following statements:
• Some of the main Dora’s attributes are her persistence and diligence.
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• From our collaboration I can conclude that Rachel has a strong motivation for scientific work. She is a focused and determined person.
• She is very strong in intellect and very hardworking.
• Peter is thoughtful, refletive and committed to life-long learning and continued development as a researcher.
• He possesses initiative and the drive to succeed.
• Stuart has always been oriented towards research based projects. His analytical abilities and perseverance has always stood him apart from the rest of the students.
Let's consider personal qualities and professional skills you will need while writing the letter of recommendation.
| Personal qualities | Professional Skills |
| Gifted Broadminded Cooperative Eager Self-confident Sociable Quick-minded Intelligent Witty Stubborn Friendly Considerate Persistent Resolute Strong-willed Cheerful Helpful | Responsible Industrious Accomplished Committed Diligent Concentrated Punctual Thorough Competitive Disciplined Composed Flexible Initiative Attentive Creative Motivated Orginized |
Choose 5 qualities and skills that you deem to be the most important. What of them do you possess? Try to characterize your groupmate using the above given personal qualities and professional skills.
Match up the skill with it's description:
| 1. Diligent 2. Composed 3. Motivated 4. Sociable 5. Considerate 6. Initiative 7. Cooperative 8. Accomplished 9. Punctual 10. Resolute | a. A firmly determined person. b. A person who is polite and caring. c. Someone who is very good at something. d. A strictly observant of an appointed or regular time. e. Someone who is constant in effort to accomplish something. f. A person who is willing to talk and friendly with other people. g. Someone who is calm and shows no nervousness or agitation. h. A person who has cause to do something. i. Someone who agrees to work together for a common purpose or goal. j. A person showing a willingness to get things done. |
You should close your reference letter with a clear statement of your recommendation and a willingness to cooperate further. The closing statements can be as follows:
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• Jane Crisp has my strong recommendation. She will be a credit to your program.
• I have no reservations in recommendig Lora Brown for graduate program at your Department.
• I enthusiastically recommend Jessica Prist as a truly capable candidate for this program.
• I believe in Glen’s outstanding abilities for scientific work and strongly recommend him for further education at your University, where he can develop and apply his bright talents.
• I am very interested in Mary Colin's application and will be happy to provide further information.
• I would be delighted to respond to any further inquiries you may have concerning Grace Stockman.
• If I can provide further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Here is an example of reference letter. Give the Russian translation.
| Dr. Bruce Carter Head of the Department of Computer Science Research University of Odense 17S Vindegade, 5270 DENMARK Professor David Brennel Department of Computer Graphics University of Cromsby 9 Malckie Square SCOTLAND 19 March, 2016 Dear Mr. Brennel Reference for Walter Cofrot As a head of Department of Computer Science at Research University of Odense, I would like to recommend one of my best student for pursuing PhD. I have known Walter Cofrot from 2010 in my capacity as Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science Research University of Odense. Walter has completed his BS and MS with distinction. He studied a range of modules which I taught, including Graphical Rendering Methods, Colour Spaces, Image Processing, Photometry. Walter earned 87%, 90%, 95% and 89% respectively in these modules. I supervised Walter's both BS and MS projects during which he published 3 scientific articles in reputed peer-reviewed journals. He participated in four international conferences on Computer Sciences at which he successfully presented the findings of his research. His MS project titled Video Texture Mapping on Raytraced Scene Via Web Technologies was among the few best projects carried out in the Department. During that project Walter demonstrated the ability to work independently with creativity and enthusiasm as well as effectively lead a team of 3 Project Fellows for sample selection and data collection techniques. Walter was always an active participant in each seminar and experimental work, often leading discussions and formulating interesting statements. He always demonstrated particular strength in scientific work. He is a focused and determined person. A month agoWalter confirmed his ability to perform high-quality research by the fact that his scientific paper devoting to the botmap-based landscape generation had been accepted to IEEE International Journal of Computer Vision, the most prestigious journal in the field. I am very glad that he wants to extend his research. So I would highly recommend Walter Cofrot for PhD program at your Univerity. I am more than sure that he will be an extremely valuable addition in your PhD program. Please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss anything more about Walter. Yours sincerely, Professor Bruce Carter Department of Research University of Odense Phone: +45 275 12 97 53 e-mail: carterbr@edu.dk |
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Answer the following questions:
1) Which sentences state the purpose of the letter?
2) Which sentences comment on Walter's personal qualities?
3) What evaluative expressions can you find in the letter?
4) Which sentences contain prediction of Walter's further success?
5) Which statements provide Walter's qualifications for the studies?
Compose your own academic recommendation letter (it can be, for example, reference letter of a professor in support of a student's application to Univerity abroad or a letter of recommendation for a student who is seeking admission to the Master's program at the University.)
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UNIT 6. LETTER OF REQUEST
The academic community is often interested in obtaining information on graduate programs, grants or fellowship opportunities abroad.
Here is the example of the letter of request for prospective post-graduate students.
| Joirdano Ferdinand Via F. Lopez 59 20184 Milano Italia June 8, 2016 Prof. Philip Morgan Department of Radioelectronics and Engineering University of Crimsby 42 St. Vincent Place Glasgow G1 0141 Scotland Dear Professor Morgan, I am writing to request information on post-graduate program in radioengineering at your Department. I graduated from the Department of Radioengineering, University of Milano in May 2016 and have Master's Degree in Radioelectronics. MS thesis was ”Software Radio Architecture With Smart Antennas”. The relevant courses of the studies included: “Software Comminicatios Architecture”, “Space Telecommunications Radio System”, “Software Defined Radio Engineering”, “GNU Radio and Simulink”. All these courses are completed with the highest grades. I am fluent in English, possess Cambridge English Certificate: C2 Proficiency. I plan to commence post-graduate school in November 2016. Please, include information concerning the possibilities of financial aid at your Department. I will be applying for an application fee waiver and full financial support from the University to cover tuition and living expenses. I would greatly appreciate your sending me the application materials and any special information for international students. Sincerely yours, Joirdano Ferdinand telephone: +392 763 26 59 e-mail: jferdinand@edu.it |
There is a great variety of different companies and organizations that donate scholarships to university students. To apply for this funds an application letter should be sent. The goal of such letter is to convince the scholarship committee that you are the applicant whom the money should be awarded. Thus, the content of the letter should focus on academic accomplishments, leadership abilities and initiative of the applicant.
Consider the following sample letter of request for scholarship:
| Howard Fuse Tietgensgade 21 DK-1651 COPENHAGEN V DENMARK May 14, 2017 Dr. Edward Frum Head of Global Scientific Fund Scholarship Committee Global Scholar Organization DK-2451 COPENHAGEN V DENMARK I am submitting this application for Global Scientific Fund Scholarship at University of Gilbert to promote my education in Electrical Engineering. I have been studying for four years in University of Research and require financial assistance to complete my degree in this field. The last two semesters I was working part-time as assistant electrical engineer in Electro Group where I gained professional experience in recording, analyzing and interpretation of test data; designing and conducting of tests; servicing and maintaining of equipment. However, I need a degree to advance in the field. Now I am working on my thesis entitled “Anti-Jamming wireless systems” which incorporates all my working experience. I have a scientific paper “Jamming and anti-jamming in wireless LANS” published in peer-reviewed journal “Advanced Communications and Technology”. I am an active student and like to be involved in any extracurricular activities. I attend additional course on Wireless Communication where I collect data important for my thesis. To be a qualified electrical engineer means a lot to me. My father and my grandfather were highly skilled professional electrical engineers and my first background I received from them. It has always been my passion to be an electrical engineer and I do my best to reach this goal. After the tragic passing of my father I was able to pay for my last two years at university with the insurance money, but my mother can’t no longer pay my university tuition. Thank you for considering my application. I have enclosed the recommendation letter from my university supervisor as well as the application form. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely yours, Howard Fuse telephone: + 316 248 17 29 e-mail: H.Fuse@edu.dk Enclosure: Recommendation form; Application Form |
Answer the following questions.
1) What statements possess the grounding for financial assistance?
2) What is the goal of the letter?
3) What statements comment on the candidate’s achievements?
4) For what purpose is financial support required?
5) What statements speak of the professional abilities of the candidate?
Letter of request may be required to ask the professor or supervisor for recommendation in writing. In this case you should provide the professor with the recommendation form required by the submission committee, the name of the university you are applying, a list of courses taken with the professor, the grades earned in the courses, examples of later projects and papers completed for the courses as well as summary of extracurricular and work experience. All this information enhances the ability to provide exact examples of your accomplishments and achievements.
Consider sample letter of request for recommendation:
| Robert Fisher 123 Russel Drive LONDON W35 9HQ GREAT BRITAIN March 24, 2016 Prof. Valery Barnis Department of Computer Technologies University of Research PP19 4EQ AYLESBUR GREAT BRITAIN Dear Professor Barnis, I am writing to ask if you would be willing to write me a supportive letter of recommendation for Master’s program at the Department of Computer Technology in the University of Brixton. The application deadline is May 23. As you may recall, I have taken two courses of yours: “Circuit Analysis” and “Digital Systems Design”. I passed both with straight A and wrote final paper entitled “Server Product Released by Digital Systems”, which was published in scientific journal “Advanced Computer Technologies”. · I have enclosed recommendation form required by submission committee as well as the copy of my resume so you can see the extracurricular and work experience I have gained during my BS studies. I completed additional “Computer Graphics” and “3-D Images” courses with highest grades. During the last two semesters I worked as test engineer at the University Computer Center where my responsibilities were to test all aspects of system performance, maintenance and service; to set up test environments, design and check test plans; to trace the results of experimental risks and report them to concerned personnel. I think this professional experience will support my further studies. Thank you for considering my request for letter of recommendation. Please, do not hesitate to contact me should you need any further information. Sincerely yours, Robert Fisher telephone: +3 156 234 36 87 e-mail: robfisher@edu.uk Enclosure: Recommendation form; Resume. |
Compose each type of the request letters given above.
PART I
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