Content

While academics face many writing tasks in their daily lives, these tasks often revolve around research within their own disciplines, within genres and conventions refined through years of practice and peer review. As a result, academic writers tend to have a strong sense of what effective communication looks like within their scholarly communities.
But most academics write less often about people. Nevertheless, an important part of being an effective mentor is understanding your students’ strengths, weaknesses, and potential and communicating who they are to others. In this context, recommendation letters play a crucial role: they represent a common requirement for study abroad programs, job applications, or a student’s – or colleague’s – future in academia (graduate school; academic appointments; a new lab; etc.). As a genre of their own, recommendation letters tend to follow specific formats, which are often influenced by cultural expectations. For academics writing in English, especially for an international or English-speaking audience, it is important to understand these expectations and adapt their letters accordingly.
In this workshop, we will focus on writing clear, persuasive, and culturally appropriate recommendation letters in English. 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 and colleagues shine on the page and to support them in achieving their academic and professional goals.
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

Voraussetzungen (z.B. technische Voraussetzungen oder Vorkenntnisse):

• 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!