Recommendation Letters (Ethics)

Question

Although I am only planning to apply for Fall '09, I wanted to see if anyone could provide some insight on something that is bothering me. I am worried about my letters of recommendation and how I will go about getting them.

Positives about my situation:

1) I'm doing really well at work and a lot of people know that. I have 4 possible recommenders in mind.

Negatives about my situation:

1) My direct supervisor is on the road 90% of the time, and therefore I am not sure how well she knows me personally or my future goals/career direction. She knows that I do great work and that I bust my tail for the company, but I am just not sure what content she'd even be able to come up with for an LOR.

2) My direct supervisor does not have the best writing skills. I do not feel comfortable at all bringing this up to her, but many people in the company know that this is one of her weaknesses.

So, really what I'm wondering at this point is: Can I go ahead and write the letters of recommendation and just have her review/tweak them and sign off? I know this is completely unacceptable at a few schools - does anyone know which ones?

If I go the other route - that is, just provide her with my essays/resume and a set of bullet points and ask her to write the letters, is it acceptable for me to ask to review the LOR for grammar/spelling prior to submitting it? I do not want to offend her, but at the same time I do not want to submit sloppy LORs to M7 type schools.

westsider · Answer

It is unacceptable at all of them. I know some of my future classmates will have done this and it bothers me immensely. I'd suggest pairing your supervisor's LOR with another "well written" one. I had a LOR written by someone who speaks english as their 3rd language. The schools shouldn't hold poor grammar against you. The whole idea is that the letter is REAL. And real people aren't always great writers. As long as your supervisor can talk about your strengths should be fine! :-D

kryzak · Answer

I would not write the letter and have them sign or even modify and then sign them. Schools forbid that, and you should follow those rules.

What I would do is write out an "outline" in bullet form for the topics you want them to talk about. List an example or two for each of the questions to demonstrate your quality, and then have your recommenders write the letter however they like. Then you can give them some grammar advice if something is written terribly. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can have a 3rd party do the review and grammar edit for your recommender. I think that's probably the best route in your situation (my recommender is also terrible at grammar).

riverripper · Answer

https://gmatclub.com/wiki/Recommendations

This is a how a lot of us approached the recommendations this year. Its a great way to go about it overall. Obviously everyones situation is slightly unique, you just have to figure it out.

westsider · Answer

Good advice river and kryz!

agold · Answer

Thanks a lot guys - This helped clear up my confusion a lot and I really appreciate it.

aaudetat · Answer

I would say that a well-written letter IS important. While smaller, more nuanced things like split infinitives aren't a big deal, bigger issues of grammar and clarity are. Simply put, if she writes poorly, it will reflect poorly on you. EVERYONE needs an editor. I am sure you can find some way to get your letter writer to submit her stuff for review, to you or someone else.

aceman626 · Answer

unfortunately, the vast majority of applicants "cheat" here, writing the letter themselves and simply having ppl sign them off. That's unfair and unethical, but nothing we can do about it.

kryzak · Answer

there are a few people out there I know of that did the same thing, but what can you do... oh well.

Recommendation Letters (Ethics)

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