Come on.
The OP said the request was to do a “first draft.”
Not “please do a complete final letter that I can just sign without reading or doing anything to.”
Sheesh!
Gee, I can’t turn out a letter for graduate school in less than a hour or so, but then I know what graduate faculty are looking for, and I take the time to read and discuss the student’s research projects, intellectual and social strengths, potential as a teacher, development as a thinker, character in the classroom. I write at least 300 words, more if I really know the student or want the kid to get into . . .
I can write a quick letter, but when–as a reviewer–I read short or generic letters, I think of them an non-recommendations.
How would you feel about a student asking someone else to write her “first draft” of an essay or term paper? How about if a kid asks her parents to write the “first draft” of her college app essay? See a problem here?
@mamalion - I agree with you. When I wrote rec letters, I usually spent between 60-120 minutes on the actual writing, after occasional notes and planning over the course of a few weeks. When someone agrees to write a rec letter, it seems to me that they should be eager and enthusiastic about that process rather than trying to shunt it (or the “first draft”) off on a student.
Except, Marvin, I might ask a student to write a draft if s/he asked me at the last possible minute. I don’t have trouble with the idea that students write a draft if they give me short turn around.
“Sorry, Professor @mamalion, but I started this essay at the last possible minute, so I asked my mother to write the first draft for me.”
“Sorry [college admissions officer], but I decided to apply to your school at the last possible minute, so my father wrote my first draft for me.”
That sound okay to you? No ethical problem there?
If professors won’t allow students to turn in someone else’s work and claim it as their own, they shouldn’t expect students to do their work and sign their name to it. No wonder students are confused about what constitutes plagiarism and what doesn’t.
If students request a letter without giving you enough time to write one, why not just decline instead of asking them to write it? You don’t have to write one for everyone who asks. Students aren’t supposed to see their rec letters; I don’t see how writing them is even permissible. If it is, why aren’t their names on them as coauthors?
Nonsense. Providing a first draft isn’t “participating” in an ethics violation of any type unless something in the draft is untrue or misleading. It’s the teacher’s choice to use all or part or none of the draft, and if he or she thinks the language suggested by the student accurately expresses the teacher’s own evaluation of the student, then it’s the recommender’s option and right to use it. In the OP’s case, we have a college professor being asked to write a recommendation for an undergraduate application, surely something he is rarely, if ever, asked to do. I can’t see how it is unethical for the professor to ask the student to provide a running start or for the student to provide it.
In the context of undergraduate admissions, I doubt many of the myriad recommendation letters that are submitted each year are particularly original. Unless the recommendation is discussing some very extraordinary accomplishments/characteristics of a very unusual student, the letters are pretty much going to say the same thing. Given the fact that the vast majority of applicants are not that unusual, I expect the vast majority of recommendations are boilerplate statements that are briefly glanced at by the admissions staff, having little impact on decisions one way or the other. The colleges just want assurance that at least a couple of teachers have a positive view of the applicant. There’s an awful lot of pearl clutching in this thread over very little substance.
I have a couple hundred rec letters from my own students that beg to differ, and again: What does it say about a recommender that they’re willing to recommend but actually writing an original letter is somehow too onerous a task? Lazy or shady or both.
Marv – have you ever done any recycling among the hundreds of letters you’ve written? Ever used the letter for student A as the starting point for .
Wouldn’t be a big ethical problem is a student used took a term paper from class A and recycled it for use in class B?
Horrors!!!
So I stand corrected.
The next time a student wants me to write them a letter on short turn around, I will turn them down. That certainly will make the world a better place. It will teach them responsibility and keep me from plagiarizing (an overblown issue–which is a dissertation in itself–but clearly one that concerns some).
Who cares if they don’t get the scholarship, job, or admission? My hands will be clean. Of course it is usually the students most in need of help who wait until the last minute, working up the courage to apply and to ask a professor, but right is right.
As a another faculty member on here, I would absolutely never ask a student to write a letter, even a draft, and have never heard of such a thing until this thread. I am amazed that some faculty seem to think this is ok. But that’s me and given what seems to pass for acceptable behavior in this country right now, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Why is this unethical? Because the college is asking for a recommendation from the PROFESSOR. In the words of the PROFESSOR. To me a professor signing their name to a letter that purports to be from them but is really not, no matter how much the professor agrees with the statements, is not a valid recommendation. If I were an admissions officer I would find that recommendation worthless.
And yes, it’s lazy. There is really no other reason for a professor to make such a request unless he/she doesn’t want to take the time to actually find out something about the student.
Equating “recycling” a letter with signing your name to someone else’s letter is also a false comparison. Even if I recycle the basic structure of the letter I still put in the time to find out what makes this particular student worth recommending. Then I am confident that the letter accurately reflects my opinion of the student.
Mama lion- Really, the future of a student lies in your inability to take a little time to write a letter? And therefore taking a shortcut is better? That says more about you than anything. To me it’s simple. If a student asks you to write a letter, WRITE a letter.
Lazy, unless the faculty member has so many students asking for letters because she knows her students. I have even had students with C’s ask for letters, and when I question why, I am told I am the only one who knows their name.
I guess some of you just aren’t writing so many letters.
This is “pearl clutching”? Over essentially falsifying that you wrote a letter? What lessons are these faculty members teaching??.
I guess you don’t write many letters.
Or maybe they’re asking you because they heard you let them write their own letters.
Only when they’re in danger of missing deadlines and ask late. I’m the one spending big time on careful letters. I guess you don’t read well either.
I actually write a lot. And read quite well. You are trying to make it seem like you are taking the high road by taking what is a shortcut and pooh-poohing he idea that there is anything wrong with this. If you were a student in my ethics class I’d challenge you on this - that is what faculty are supposed to do.
So, rather than engaging in a faculty fight (I give you the last word and the ethical high ground you so deeply crave), let me return this to the issue of letters of recommendation and something that parents might want to know.
A few semesters ago I was teaching a course with an international theme, and I had the study abroad people come in and talk about programs and scholarships. I had thought it was a straight forward 10 minute overview, but one of the students, a shy woman, asked how do you get letters of recommendation. Several other students had the same worry. From the back of the room, I volunteered I would be willing to write letters for anyone in the class. They were all decent students, doing their work to the best of their ability. They, as a class, were surprised. One asked if it was just for study abroad, or did I mean for other things, too. I assured them it was for other things, too.
I was so surprised that students, mostly juniors and seniors, had no idea that faculty wrote letters willingly and routinely for students who ask, that writing letters of recommendation was part of our job description. Many thought that a student needed a special relationship, an outstanding accomplishment, or a dramatic need to even ask. Of course, I can write the best letters for outstanding students whom I know well, but really I can put together a decent letter for almost all students with some lead time and conversations.
I think faculty assume students know to ask and how to ask, but in reality many students are too timid to ask.
“Equating “recycling” a letter with signing your name to someone else’s letter is also a false comparison.”
Prof. You get an F. Since you are doing the false comparison. Please go back, read the OP, and then try again…
The OP said the request was to do a FIRST DRAFT. Nowhere was it even suggested that the request was to prepare a letter that could be signed as is and sent. It asked for a FIRST DRAFT, which would then be EDITED.
Everyone on here says that asking for a brag sheet seems to be OK and is common.
Asking for a resume also seems to be OK.
Sitting down and having a conversation with the recommendee also seems to be OK.
Using a previous rec letter as a starting point and then editing/recycling also seems to be OK.
All of those above methods are OK but touching a FIRST DRAFT is beyond the pale. Sheesh!!!