ESL supervisor, good letter of rec?

[wasistdas]

I have been very lucky with experience overseas and have been working at a couple of places that directly relate to my planned field of study.

Here is my problem: I think a letter of rec from the director of either of these programs would be great for my application, but basically I am the only native english speaker at either place. While their english is obviously good enough to make themselves understood and keep the office running, I am worried that the level of writing in the letter or rec might not reflect the quality of the work and the organization.

Has anyone run into this problem before? Is it ethical to edit strictly the grammar/spelling of the letter before it is sent? I doubt that the committee would be too happy receiving a letter in turkish, french or italian.

Would it look bad to have this work experience on my resume, but not have one of my LOR's from them?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[ktel]

I have had many of my LoR writers show me the letter before it was sent out so that I could edit or correct anything. If your letter writer is OK with that and wouldn't be offended by you editing his/her English, I think that would be the best option.

[Sigaba]

If a LoR needs editing, is there any way you can get a third party to perform the task and then to send the translated version and the original along? Or maybe the person writing the letter can first express him/her self in the native tongue and then in English?

If an admissions committee thinks an applicant has seen a LoR they may give it less credence. The logic is that a LoR written in confidence will reflect a higher level of condor by the person writing it.

[sarakeet]

When I was applying to law school a few years ago, one of my LOR writers actually asked me to write the letter for him, and then he would modify it as necessary. Apparently this is fairly common at least in law school applications. He said he figured I would remember the classes I took from him and papers I wrote for him better than he did... Anyway after he changed up a few things, he then sent it back to me again to check over the grammar and facts--and he's a native English speaker. SO I would say that there's no problem with editing it yourself if your writers are comfortable with it. If they seem uncomfortable with it, try a third party.