A letter of recommendation is not intended to be an objective evaluation of someone; it is supposed to recommend, not analyze. As such, negative comments about the job candidate in question should be avoided.

Most candidates submit only the most glowing letters of recommendation anyway. A letter expressing an objective opinion will look like a condemnation compared to letters from other candidates; it will be the kiss of death to any hopes for admission or scholarship. A negative comment in your letter will probably be enough to keep the candidate from using it, which of course defeats the whole purpose of the exercise.

Sometimes schools arrange for a candidate’s references to send their letters of recommendation not to the candidate, as is usual, but instead directly to the schools – by-passing the candidate so that she cannot read the contents of the letter. This approach is supposed to make the information in the letters the schools receive less biased.

Generally, this does not work. A good portion of referrers will share the contents of their letters with their job candidates anyway, despite the schools’ wishes. In practice, rather than lead to a more fair assessment of candidates, this tactic tends to weed out the few candidates whose letter-writers are perhaps a bit too honest – that is, naive. In my opinion, this situation is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The worst that you should say about a candidate is that she “struggles with” something. For example:

“Sally does not have a mind for details, which has been a real challenge for her in this environment. However, her organizational and computer skills have allowed her to keep her research assignments on schedule.”

In this way, Sally is not presented in a negative light; instead, she is shown to be able to use her strengths to overcome her weaknesses, which is something we all need to do.

JUST SAY NO

All of this is not to say that you should portray your candidate to be better than he is; this is, of course, dishonest – and dangerous to your professional reputation. Present positive characteristics and accomplishments accurately and just avoid mentioning negative traits.

Now if the candidate in question has so many negative qualities that you cannot in good conscience recommend him, then you shouldn’t. Thus, you have no business writing a letter of recommendation. Simply refuse.

For more information, visit: http://www.letters-of-recommendation.org