At every stage of advancement in your career you will need letters of recommendation. It is to your benefit to have some control over the process and content of these letters. Letters only support your application when they provide an unambiguous declaration of your ability, accompanied by descriptive detail. Here we consider how to obtain letters of this kind.

Some material taken from (or inspired by) http://gradschool.about.com/

The ideal letter writer is someone who can speak in personal detail about aspects of your ability and character that are not captured in your CV. It is far preferable to have a detailed, glowing letter of recommendation from a non-famous, junior faculty member as compared to a perfunctory recitation of the highlights of your CV by someone famous that you don't know well. A letter of recommendation need not cover all aspects of your career or suitability for an award or job. The letter can focus on a particular aspect of your interaction with the writer of the letter

• Make the request at least a month in advance of the deadline.
• If at all possible, arrange for an in-person meeting to ask for a letter from the candidate recommender (hereafter, the “candidate”).
• The purpose of the meeting is not to persuade the candidate to write you a letter. The purpose is for you (and the candidate) to determine if they will be able to write you a letter that strengthens your application. It is essential that the candidate be given the opportunity to gracefully decline.
• The request can be of the form: “I am applying for X. I need to include a letter of recommendation that emphasizes my skill at Y. Would you be able to write me a very strong letter of recommendation?”
• Watch closely for indirect signs that the candidate does not feel they can write you a strong letter. You can understand that a professor might feel uncomfortable telling you this directly. Signs of uncertainty include:
  • looking uncomfortable
  • hesitation in their response
  • appeals to their busy schedule
  • requests for additional details regarding what you are applying for before they agree to write a letter
• If you spot any signs of uncertainty, give the candidate an easy out: “Listen, as we are talking about this, I realize that you don't know my work in area Y well enough to write a letter about this. Sorry to put you on the spot.” Unless the candidate forcefully insists that they can write you a strong letter, do not agree to have the candidate write you a letter (avoid the road to Abilene).
• Once you have secured a recommender, let them know that you will provide them with everything they need to produce the letter. Sometimes, this will require you arranging for a second meeting to discuss the program to which you are applying and your application.
• You should offer a draft letter for the recommender. While it might seem strange, this is standard practice. Here is one way to phrase this: “I can prepare a draft letter of recommendation for you that has the details of the program I'm applying for, some information about how we know each other, and items from my background that would be helpful to emphasize. Of course, you should edit this however you want!”

Five minutes after agreeing to write you a letter, the recommender will forget all about it. It is up to you to ensure that the writer has everything they need to produce the letter, and receives timely reminders to get it done. Remember, the recommender is doing you a favor; make it easy for them.

After the initial meeting in which you make your request, send an email that contains the following:

• A thanks for agreeing to write the letter
• The deadline for the letter and a two sentence summary of the program to which you are applying. It's OK to provide a web link or document with more details of the program, but it is unfair to expect the recommender to read all of the material and extract the key details needed for their letter.
• Your CV
• A draft letter of recommendation

The draft letter is crucial. This is where you provide the key details that will help your recommender write you a strong letter. This is not a time for excessive modesty. Feel free to express to the recommender that it is awkward having to write positive things about yourself, but that you suffered through it to produce a draft letter. Here is an example format:

<blockquote>February 12, 2015 (the letter due date)

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship award in neuroscience

Re: Student Person, MD

Dear colleagues:

I am writing to provide my most enthusiastic support for Dr. Person's application to the HHMI Fellowship in neuroscience. Her proposed project, “This is the title of my project”, is both an exciting, translational application of brain-machine interface techniques, and an opportunity for Dr. Person to develop as an independent physician scientist.

I have known Student since 2012 when she DETAILS OF TRAINING INTERACTION HERE.

Now, Dr. Person proposes to apply this expertise to develop an optogenetic memory prosthesis. DETAIS OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT HERE.

Dr. Person has an outstanding track record. She DETAILS OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS HERE.

In my X years of working with (residents / graduate students / post-docs) Student Person is one of the best trainees with whom I have had the pleasure to work.

Sincerely,

Mentor Recommender, MD PhD

</blockquote>

After providing these materials, sit back and wait. While you may complete your application weeks or months in advance, recommenders will (sadly) often wait until the final week to submit their letters.

When the deadline is a week away, send a reminder email. Be sure to include in this reminder any details that the recommender will need regarding how to submit the letter. A second reminder can be sent the day before the deadline. If you do not receive responses to these emails, call or stop by the office of the recommender.

Occasionally recommenders will miss the deadline. If this happens, first confirm with the program that they have not yet received the letter. Then, call or stop by the office of the recommender. State the fact without judgment: “The HHMI office tells me they have not received your letter.” This will usually prompt a scramble by the recommender to send in a letter.

Send a thank-you email to a recommender after you confirm that their letter has been received by the program.

Crucially, be sure to send an email to the recommender after you receive the news (good or bad) regarding your application. Over your career, you are likely to return to a recommender more than once. Help them to be invested in your career growth, and share with them your successes and failures. Remember, while the public face of an academic career is a CV that documents success, the actual path is littered with failure.

A particular letter of recommendation is interpreted within a larger culture of such letters. In the United States, the expectation is that letters of recommendation are very (nearly uniformly) positive; this is not the case in other countries. The particular language of a letter is often scrutinized. Why did the recommender say that the candidate has only “good” attention to detail? Is the recommender suggesting in fact that the candidate is sloppy?

Given this culture, a strong letter of recommendation:

• Provides details that establish that the recommender knows the applicant well enough to speak to their qualities
• Is unreserved in its praise
• Introduces weaknesses only to illustrate how the applicant was able to improve or overcome this weakness

Weak letters lack details of interaction with the applicant and are ambiguous.

One day you will be asked to write letters for your trainees. Be sure to coach your trainees to ask you if you can write a strong letter. Circumstances might require you to occasionally write letters that are not strong. You should, however, decline to write letters that are explicitly negative. Such a letter reflects poorly on you as well as on the student, as it can appear petty for an established mentor to write damaging statements regarding a trainee. If circumstances require you to send some material, you can write “I decline to write a letter for Trainee Individual. I have also told Dr. Individual that I will not be able to write a letter.”

Over a long career you will develop a reputation regarding your letters, and what you write regarding one trainee will be interpreted by your colleagues in light of your previous recommendations. Aim to develop a reputation of honest description of the strengths of your trainees.