教授:寫推薦信,我的思路是這樣的

其實這個問題,看網上各種學生寫的總結幫助不大。

最好的方法是找大學的教員的博客，看看那些「給學生寫推薦信的人」的真實想法。

如果你精力比較旺盛，可以自行google：

How to Ask for aRecommendation Letter site:*.edu

這樣搜索出來的結果被限定在大學網站之中。

如果你想省事，我翻譯一篇之前找到的Jason Eisner寫的博客吧，寫得相當有乾貨，說實話，看這一篇就夠了。

以下為原文：

 

I'm happy to write recommendation letters for graduate study (or post-Ph.D. opportunities). It'squite nice to see my students continue on in the field.

我很樂意為研究/博士生學習(或博士後)寫推薦信。很高興看到我的學生繼續在這個領域工作。

What will I write?

我要寫什麼？

I'll try to find substantive things to say. The more closely we've worked together, the more informative my letter can be.

我會儘量找到實質性的東西來說。我們合作得越密切，我的信就能提供越多的信息。

1、If you have done research with me， then writing a letter for you is the least I can do in return!

如果你和我一起做過研究，那麼為你寫一封信是我至少能做的回報！

I'll say as much as I can, describing the technical scope of our project and your specific contributions to it.

我將儘可能多地描述我們項目的技術範圍以及您對它的具體貢獻。

I will also try to sketch what it's like to work with you—what you bring to the table technically, how fast you get results, what you're like in person, and perhaps some thoughts about what kind of advising situation might work best for you in future.

我還會嘗試描述和你一起工作是什麼樣子的。嚴格按照事實地講你能帶來什麼，你能多快得到成果，你是個什麼樣的人，也許還有一些關於未來什麼樣的指導方式對你最有效的想法。

It's really helpful if we've had at least one publication, because then I will have seen you do all the parts of putting a research paper together, and can testify to those skills and brag about your success.

如果我們至少發表過一篇出版物（指論文、教程、書籍、代碼之類的），那真的很有幫助，因為那樣我就會看到你如何把各個部分裝配成一篇論文。這些事情可以證明你的技能，也方便我「吹噓」你的成功。

2、If you have been a student in my classes, then I can describe what you did in class。

如果你曾經是我班上的學生，那麼我可以描述你在班上做了什麼。

I'll provide some standard text describing the class and noting that it's a difficult class with mixed grad and undergrad students. 

我將提供一些標準的文本來描述這門課程，並指出這是一門混合了研究生和本科生的較難的課程（這句話應該是教授寫給某節課上學生的）。

I can say something about your homework and exam grades and where you ranked in the class, but that's pretty boring. 

我可以說一些關於你的家庭作業和考試成績，以及你在班上的排名的信息，但其實這些東西相當無聊。

If you did a class project or went overboard with extra credit on some assignment, I can describe what you did and how mature it was. 

如果你做了一個課程設計，或者在某個作業上獲得了額外的學分，我可以描述你做了什麼，以及它做到了多麼成熟的程度。

If you had great comments and questions during lecture, at office hours, or on Piazza, that will be the most interesting thing for me to mention!

如果你們在課堂上，辦公時間，或者在Piazza（註：一個在國外大學被廣泛應用的學生教員間問答網站）上有很棒的評論和問題，這將是我提到的最有趣的事情！

3、If you have been a CA for one of my classes, I'll discuss that as well. If students benefited from your teaching, your office hours, or your help on Piazza, I'd want to write about that. 

如果你曾經是我的一個班級的助理（CA: course assistant），我也會討論這個問題。如果學生們能從你的教學，你的辦公時間，或者你在 Piazza 的幫助中受益，我會寫下來。

In some cases, I may be able to customize the letter to specific schools, if I think that there's a Ph.D. advisor who would be a really good match for you. Usually this doesn't seem necessary, though.

在某些情況下，如果我認為有一個博士生導師非常適合你，我可以根據特定的學校來定製這封信。不過，通常情況下，這似乎沒有必要。

Warning:If you have only been involved with me through my classes, then my letter probably won't be enough to get you into grad school. It will just be some supporting evidence.Your main letter should be from someone who knows what you're capable of outside the classroom.

警告：如果你只是通過我的某個課程跟我取得了聯繫，那麼我的信可能不足以讓你進入研究生院。這只是一些支持性的證據。你的主要推薦信應該來自那些知道你能在課外做什麼的人。

What should yousend me?

你應該發送給我什麼？

As a matter of policy, I will only send a letter if it is confidential. So you should waive your right to read the letter. This assures the recipient that my recommendation will be honest.

根據政策，我只會在保密的情況下寄出一封信。所以你應該放棄閱讀這封信的權利。這向收件人保證我的建議是誠實的。

Please give me a month's notice if possible, so that I can find a block of time to fit this in.It would be useful for you to send me the following materials as soon asconvenient. We could also meet to discuss your application, but ideally you'd send me at least some of these items first.

如果可能的話，請在一個月前通知我，以便我能找到一個給你寫推薦信的時間段。如果你方便的話，請儘快寄給我以下材料。我們也可以見面討論你的申請，但是理想的情況下，你應該先寄給我至少其中的一些項目。

1、Your statement of purpose, so I know what degree you're seeking and why, and what you want to work on. If you send a good version early enough, then I may be able to provide feedback in person or electronically. Here's some advice that I endorse for CS applicants (there's plenty more online).

你的目標聲明，我能知道你在尋求什麼學位，為什麼，你想要什麼工作。如果你及早發送了一個好的版本，那麼我可能會親自或以電子方式提供反饋。這裡有一些我支持 CS 申請者的建議(在網上還有很多)。

2、Your transcript, so I can comment on your overall preparation.

你的成績單，所以我可以評論你的整體情況。

3、If you're applying for a fellowship, please send me your application materials and a couple of pointers about what the fellowship is looking for.

如果你正在申請獎學金，請把你的申請材料和一些關於獎學金尋求什麼的注意事項寄給我。

4、A list of things that i shoud not forget about you. This isn't required. But it's wise: if you've done 5 great things with me, there's a risk that only 3 of them will come to mind when I go to write the letter.

一張我在推薦信中不該忘記的點的清單。這不是必須的，但是這是明智的：如果你和我一起做了5件偉大的事情，那麼當我去寫這封信的時候，可能只有3件事會浮現在我的腦海中。

Especially if you are such a wizard that you made something look easy and I never even knew how hard it was. Or if you helped other students make progress. So please do jog my memory—just send me an email or doc with some ideas for what I might talk about.

特別是這些情況：你是一個讓困難的事情看起來很簡單的魔法師，但是我（只看到了簡單的表象）卻不知道它原本有多難；或者你幫助其他學生取得了進步（，而我不知道）。因此，請一定要喚起我的記憶.只要給我發一封電子郵件或文檔，告訴我一些我可能在推薦信裡談論的內容。

Of course, I will write my own letter in my own words! So don't worry about the phrasing!

當然，我會用我自己的話寫我自己的信！所以不用擔心你的措辭！

5、A list of places you're applying, with deadlines. If you let me know about this early enough, I can suggest other places. (E.g., check out the full Answer Wiki here.) 

一張你申請的項目的清單，上面寫著截止日期。如果你能及早讓我知道這件事，我可以推薦其他的一些大學項目。(例如，查看完整的答案列表：Which are the best schools for studying natural language processing?學習自然語言處理的最好學校是哪所)

Most great advisors don't get enough strong applications: applicants only think of a few schools they've heard of, but there are great advisors scattered all over the country and beyond the country, just waiting to hear from you.

大多數優秀的導師都沒有得到足夠強有力的申請：申請者只想到他們聽說過的幾所學校，但是有很多優秀的導師分布在全國各地甚至全國各地，就等著你的消息。

Reminders as needed. Once I've written your letter, it is pretty easy for me to find and deal with the past and future auto-emails from various schools that ask me     to upload it. 

需要時提醒我。一旦我寫好了你的信，我很容易就能找到並處理來自各個學校要求我上傳的過去和未來的自動電子郵件。

However, profs have a lot to deal with every day. I could miss a request somehow, or fail to see it because of Gmail's spam filter! So please pay attention to whether I've fulfilled all requests, and feel free to drop me a brief reminder if needed. I won't be insulted, and you shouldn't panic.

然而，教授們每天都有很多事情要處理。我可能會錯過某個大學要求我提交推薦信的請求，或者因為 Gmail 的垃圾郵件過濾器而看不到它！所以請注意我是否滿足了所有的要求，如果需要，請隨時給我發送一個簡短的提醒。我不會感到被羞辱，做這件事你也不必緊張。

這篇文章好就好在：

基本涵蓋了學生所有情況（TA/CA，上課的學生，一起做研究的學生），並且寫出了各種學生要推薦信時，老師分別怎麼想。

給了一個明確的提交材料的清單，並且說明了各種材料能怎麼幫助老師寫推薦信。

給了一個明確的「你該做什麼」的事情列表。涵蓋了準備推薦信之前和推薦信之後。

名詞解釋：

advising situation：國外的導師被稱為advisor，直譯就是「提建議的人」，advising situation可以理解為「導師指導你的環境、狀態、方式」等等

CA：CA/TA是國外大學課堂中的職位，一般由學生擔任。

作者：阿楊

轉自知乎