LoR Guidance for British Professors?

[Indecisive Poet]

Hi everyone! I'm wondering if anyone has experience with guiding letter-writers at UK/European/non-US universities towards writing a letter that will be received positively by American PhD programs. I've long been aware of the different letter-writing styles of UK vs. US faculty members, and it's becoming increasingly apparent to me as I research the issue and talk to previous professors that the brief, objective and reserved letters written by Brits run the risk of being received as not very positive (despite their intentions) by American adcoms.

I am applying to PhD programs next fall and I will have 1 American recommender from undergrad, 1 very strong writer from my UK MA institution, and... hopefully another recommender from my UK institution that will not be as strong as the others but not by a large margin (I hope). I am wondering if there is any sort of...template? I can send to the latter two that would help them understand what would be expected of their letters at the programs I'm applying to. I've come across this page from The Professor Is In, but it's geared toward letters for dissertating PhD students entering the job market so it's not all that helpful. I am especially worried about the personalities of all of the options I have for my 3rd letter not being conducive to writing a warm letter.

[mandelbulb]

for my MA, i had a letter writer from a different field write for me because i'd worked with her in a research capacity for years. she asked if any of my other letter writers wouldn't mind sharing past letters so she could mirror them. they were happy to share and even gave me examples from their colleagues. that might be a way to go?

[WildeThing]

I had a Euro letter writer last cycle but she wound up sending things in before I got a chance to give any guidelines. Suggestion A is to ask your top school what things they expect from an LoR because your writer is inexperienced. Suggestion B would be to ask the professor that was here (forgot the username sorry) for advice. Suggestion C would be to ask them to be detailed. IMO LoRs should corroborate your interests, establish you as a competent scholar, bring attention to things you could not fit into the SoP, and praise you so you don’t have to do it yourself. Since everyone is getting letters that say we’re great, I understand that an excellent one identifies your qualities and make you sound unique. That said, people have said that LoRs all sound the same so the important thing is that they fit in and don’t stand out for being less enthusiastic than the rest.

This was all conjecture though.

[havemybloodchild]

39 minutes ago, WildeThing said:

I had a Euro letter writer last cycle but she wound up sending things in before I got a chance to give any guidelines. Suggestion A is to ask your top school what things they expect from an LoR because your writer is inexperienced. Suggestion B would be to ask the professor that was here (forgot the username sorry) for advice. Suggestion C would be to ask them to be detailed. IMO LoRs should corroborate your interests, establish you as a competent scholar, bring attention to things you could not fit into the SoP, and praise you so you don’t have to do it yourself. Since everyone is getting letters that say we’re great, I understand that an excellent one identifies your qualities and make you sound unique. That said, people have said that LoRs all sound the same so the important thing is that they fit in and don’t stand out for being less enthusiastic than the rest.

This was all conjecture though.

@emprof

[emprof]

On 2/17/2019 at 6:12 AM, kendalldinniene said:

@emprof

UK and other European LoRs do tend to be less effusive than American ones, but this is almost universally true--and we get lots of letters from international applicants every year, so this is a familiar phenomenon. Committees will adjust their rhetorical expectations for LoRs depending on where they're coming from. The American default is to hyperbole, so committees have to parse the differences between "recommend her highly," "recommend her enthusiastically," "recommend her without reservation," "recommend her warmly," etc. I think that in @Indecisive Poet's case, it's more valuable to have writers from the MA institution write than from the American undergraduate institution, since they know the most recent work, and work at the graduate level. Any good admissions committee should know that rhetorical standards are different for UK letters. UK writers sometimes make explicit reference to the fact that the British tendency is not to rhetorical effusiveness, and that the writer hopes that brevity and rhetorical reserve will not be construed as a lack of enthusiasm. But the committee shouldn't even need that reminder.