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Writing as a Mentor: Drafting Strong Recommendation Letters
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Beschreibung
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Termine
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While academics face many writing tasks in their daily lives, these tasks often revolve around research in their field of specialty and area of expertise, in genres that are familiar from years of practice, and in situations in which they continually improve their writing in a peer-review process. Thus, academic writers tend to have a good sense of the conventions and expectations common within their scientific community. But most academics write less often about people. Nevertheless, an important part of being an effective mentor is knowing your students well, including their strengths and weaknesses, and communicating who they are to others. In this context, recommendation letters play an important role: they represent a common requirement for study abroad programs, potential job opportunities, or a student’s – or colleague’s – future in academia (graduate school; an academic job; a new lab; etc.). As a genre of their own, recommendation letters tend to follow specific formats, often influenced by the culture in which they are received: thus, it is important for the writer of such letters to be aware of their audience’s expectations, which may differ from their own.
In this workshop, we will focus on writing recommendation letters in English, for an English-speaking audience, though much of what we will discuss also applies to other contexts. We will learn about common letter structure, about selecting what evidence to include in descriptions of your mentees, about cultural differences that may shape the genre, and about common pitfalls (and how to avoid them). In between our two synchronous sessions, you will be asked to write or revise a draft of a recommendation letter, and you will provide and receive feedback on your completed drafts. Thus, you will leave the workshop better equipped to make your students shine on the page and to help them achieve their professional goals.
This course is part of the writing instruction curriculum at Heidelberg University but can function as a standalone course – no prior participation is required.
Learning objectives:
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
- describe common components of effective recommendation letters
- evaluate and select appropriate evidence to include in your letters
- identify biased language in order to avoid it in your own letter drafts
- reflect on different audience expectations and adjust your letters accordingly
Teaching-Learning Activities:
- Video conferences, synchronous (2x120min.)
- Writing and revising a letter draft
- Small writing groups for support and peer feedback
Prerequisites:
- An interest in the topic and a working knowledge of English – having a concrete student to write about will help (though revising an old letter is possible)
- A willingness to share your letter draft with the instructor and other course participants – submitting a final version of a recommendation letter is a required part of the course!
Technical Requirements:
- We are using Microsoft Teams as a platform for the whole course. You will receive relevant information before the course starts.
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1,00 Tage
(8 AE)
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