Here is a common scene: A supervisor agrees to write your letter of recommendation with one condition—you draft it. Shocker. We, too, were surprised the first time this happened to us. We assumed ...

Good tidings to you! I write this letter today to tell you: personal writing is tough. Sure, elementary school might have taught us about structure and form — the textbooks say a well-composed letter ...

This story was originally published on April 24, 2025, and has been updated. The art of letter writing is not dead. Rachel Syme, a New Yorker staff writer, learned that during the early days of the ...

Faculty members often seem to lack insight into how to write strong letters on their students’ behalf, writes Manya Whitaker, who offers 10 guidelines for improvement. A few years ago, I wrote “A ...