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Riding the Recommendation Wave: Writing Letters of Recommendation to get your Students to their Next Shore
Objective/Background:LORs are an important part of an application for residency training. Many educators feel ill equipped to write letters of recommendation (LORs) and to determine details such as content and tone. In the 2016 NRMP Program Directors Survey, 87% of Ob/Gyn program directors cited LORs as a critical in selecting applicants. While a good LOR can be an asset, a bad LOR may limit
a student’s options. In this workshop facilitators will review the do’s and don’ts of letter writing and introduce best practices from the literature.
Workshop Agenda:• Large group discussion to identify participant’s challenges in writing LORs (10 minutes).
• Facilitators review the do’s and don’ts of letter writing and introduce best practices
from the literature for writing LORs that are honest and effective (15 minutes).
• Participants divide into small groups and review samples of good and bad LORs (15 minutes).
• Small groups report to the large group and discuss how to improve the poor LOR (10 minutes).
• In a large group, participants will share their experience writing LOR for students with academic or personal issues (15 minutes).
• Facilitators provide a short summary of how to advise students to request LOR’s, provide conclusions, and lessons learned (15 minutes).
Interactive Component: Participants will interact in both large and small groups as described in the agenda.
Take Home Product: Participants will leave with a toolkit (provided digitally) with references and example LORs as well as a PDF of the presentation.
Key Words: letter of recommendation, assessment
Topics:
Faculty Development Seminar, 2019, Faculty, Clerkship Director, Interpersonal & Communication Skills, UME,
