Writing my own LOR

[OpalOnyx]

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This feels really wierd. Volunteer coordinator said to write a rough draft for her. Has anyone else had to do this before? It feels strange talking about myself in the 3rd person and making up her statements "From blah blah blah, I could tell that X is blah blah blah"

 

[146233]

It is weird. I had to do it twice. The writers think they're doing you a "favor" but it's difficult. This is your chance, though, to highlight things in your application your other LOR writers may not know. Be flattering, but don't do it with nauseating prose. 😉

 

[longhorn09]

I had just wrote one =]

 

[witness23]

i found this pretty hard and i think my other letters were better than the one i wrote for myself. i mean, i had to give it back to the PI so I did not want to come across like a tool. I should have wrote that I was the bestest though.

 

[STXGregor]

My boss kept forgetting and forgetting. Eventually she said to write a draft and then give it to her. This was probably a good idea, since I've read her e-mails and her writing or horrible. But I decided to just drop it. I had enough good ones from elsewhere, and I just feel really weird highlighting my strengths. I used to hate those exercises in school where we had to list our 3 best traits.

 

[OpalOnyx]

Yeah - It's like putting words in someone else's mouth. Honestly some people think they're doing a "favor" but it just reflects on the laziness of the person that was asked. I really need this letter unfortunately - so I can't drop it. I suppose I'll write what I want, make it a glowing recommendation, and if the "writer" has a problem with it - she can change it.

 

[witness23]

Yeah - It's like putting words in someone else's mouth. Honestly some people think they're doing a "favor" but it just reflects on the laziness of the person that was asked. I really need this letter unfortunately - so I can't drop it. I suppose I'll write what I want, make it a glowing recommendation, and if the "writer" has a problem with it - she can change it.

depends. the writer might have no clue what you are applying for (ie a new Humanities prof). I had to write a couple of recs to PeaceCorps for that friend letter and I had no clue what to put on there. I'd rather them just write it then screw it up for someone.