What should I do if my recommender ask me for draft of LOR

[john888]

Hi

I asked my professor for a LOR he said write me a draft and send it to me with your CV. Now my question is what should I do ? How many pages I should write ? how does this process work I have never seen anything like this before. Any help will be highly appreciated.

 

[Alicia1593]

Are you saying that the letter writer wants you to write the letter yourself?

I would be hesitant to do this, it seems unprofessional of the letter writer.

Disclaimer: This is of course, my opinion, I'm sure that you will get others here and you should go with what feels best for you.

Another option may be to look up how to write a letter of recommendation and use that to create a draft.

[shadowclaw]

I agree that it is rather unprofessional of the writer, but I have occasionally read about professors doing this. Personally, if one of my professors responded to my request for a LOR like this, I would ask someone else. I just don't think the resulting letter would be strong. There are certain things that your writer can say about you in a LOR that you really can't write about yourself. For example, your LOR writer might think that you have amazing writing capabilities and that you've written some of the best papers he/she has ever received in 30 years of teaching. However, unless your professor told that to your face, you'd never know and wouldn't write that about yourself. Another example: you may have taken several courses with the same professor and consistently been in the top 5% of the class, but you wouldn't know how you compare to other students because you don't have access to their grades. Therefore, you couldn't write that you are always at the top of the class.

 

It's also possible that the professor just wants to know the types of things you'd like to see highlighted in a LOR, and that's why they've requested a draft.

 

Either way, if you do choose to write up the draft yourself, it would be best to search the internet for examples and put the together the best letter you can. I assume a LOR is probably limited to a page, but I can't say for sure.