Announcements: Director Notes

How to Ask for a Letter of Recommendation

If you want to have a good letter of recommendation, you will need to follow a few important steps.

Give your recommender plenty of time to write your letter, ideally a full month.

Ask someone who you are sure has an excellent opinion of your work.  If the person hesitates to saying “yes,” don’t insist. Ask someone else.

Give your recommender plenty of information to help write the letter.

Be sure your recommender has specific information about you. To help in this effort, send the recommender a packet of information which includes your resume, highlights of the work you did for or with the recommender (a paper topic, an oral presentation, group work, or whatever you consider distinguished you in the class or on the project). Ask if he/she would like to see samples of your work.

Be sure your recommender has specific information about the position or scholarship. List the selection criteria and how you think you meet those criteria.  If the organization has a website, include that URL in your information packet.

More specifics: Be sure to give the due date for the recommendation, the name of the person the letter goes to, as well as the exact address. Provide an addressed and stamped envelope.

Helpful reminders:  Let the person know you will send an email reminding him/her of the recommendation due date.  Beginning two weeks before it is due, send a reminder and see if there are any additional questions.

Permission: If your recommendation is being sent off campus, you must provide official permission to your recommender so he/she may specifically refer to your work. This is what you need to do.

• Download the form at http://www.legal.uncc.edu/ferpa-consentforms.html
• Give this form to your recommender to keep on file.

Be sure to thank your recommender for his/her time. This can be a handwritten thank you note or a small gift (candy, etc).

Be sure to let the person know the results of your application.

Note: Once a person has written a letter for you, you should feel free to ask him/her for other letters as the original letter is often modified for a new situation and is easy to write.