r/AskAcademia • u/User3949588391 • 1d ago
Humanities Letter of Recommendation to Professor for Teaching Award
Hello,
It is my first year in graduate school (clinical psychology), and my undergraduate research advisor asked me to write them a letter of recommendation for a teaching award. I have taken one of their classes and collaborated with their in research, and they advised me on my own undergraduate thesis. They have helped me grow a lot both as a student and as a researcher, and I want to write them a glowing letter. Does anyone have any tips on how to write an LoR for a professor or have good examples?
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u/nutterbutters54321 1d ago
Start with a statement that you are very pleased to recommend the professor for the award, then list all of the ways you know the professor, then spend a paragraph on each one and explain how great the professor was in each of these activities. End by repeating how enthusiastically you are in your recommendation and your contact information in case they would like any additional information.
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u/pconrad0 1d ago
Look at your school's website for information about two things:
The criteria for the award; sometimes it will have some language about what kind of teaching excellence the award is intended to recognize.
The Promotion and Tenure Criteria related to teaching. This might also give you an idea of the 'normal' expectations and then you can talk about how the candidate doesn't just meet them, but goes far beyond them.
If the teacher helps to inspire you to want to go further into your area of study, inspires you to seek out knowledge and skills you would not have sought out otherwise, to put in more effort on their classes than your other classes... These are all things you can write about.
Emphasize that they have high standards. That they make you work hard. That you really learn. And that they make you want to pursue this knowledge for its own sake.
These are the things they want to see.
Source: have written three such letters as a student, all successful.
Have also written three such letters for faculty colleagues, all successful.
And: an a recipient of such an award.
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u/Straight_Arugula_209 1d ago
I did this for one of my professors last year (he didn’t even want to ask but his boss made him…he didn’t think he’d get it). I agree with everything else here and I was advised to keep it at 2 pages (we knew the committee well) as no one would read further—take this or leave it if you/the prof specifically know those on the committee and can advise on length of one is not specified in the award application. I asked him to specify if there was anything that he wanted to ensure was in the letter to help me guide my writing. I had a decent idea of what I wanted to say but didn’t know how significant it would be to a committee based on their criteria/beyond expectations for faculty promotion, so I sought his guidance here. He mentioned things that I would not have prioritized and things that I would’ve prioritized were the set expectations for promotion (ie a job expectation rather than an act of going above and beyond) so I was glad for his input. I want to specify that this was still very much my letter and I appreciated understanding what he thought would support the rest of his application. I also struggle with overall cohesion of a narrative and knew that I couldn’t use my professor as a resource for edits, as I had done in the past, so I used my university’s writing lab for the first time ever and spent about 2 hrs with someone making sure that I was selling his significant impact on myself and others to the committee. I hope it goes well!!
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u/winter_cockroach_99 1d ago
In US academia, letters are expected to be long. If there is no page limit for your letter, it will help to make it 2-3 pages. You can pad it with a long description of the research that you did with them (and why it matters), and then (more important) discuss the impact that working with the prof had on your career. And +1 to the suggestions from pconrad0 and others.
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u/LintRolledForWhat 23h ago
It'll be fine if you just use the normal academic essay structure: thesis/intro, 3 paragraphs giving examples you present and interpret that link back to the thesis, conclusion.
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u/TotalCleanFBC 1d ago
In any letter of recommendation, demonstrating impact is the most important thing. Did you professor change your life by making you aware of a new subject, or give you an opportunity that you benefited from?