ABSTRACT
In this chapter, a close study is made of 108 letters of recommendation written on behalf of 108 candidates for three university positions, and of thirty-four letters of recommendation written on behalf of sixteen candidates for a college position. We begin with the assumption that such letters are written both to delineate and establish academic qualifications. We further assume that a department looking for someone to fill a vacancy would be interested in information about how an applicant might carry out his or her academic responsibilities—teaching, research, and service—and would use such letters in an effort to predict this. Surely, the letters are written with the certainty that the qualities of a candidate described are important to a reader, to members of a department seeking to recruit effective faculty. In the analysis that follows, we are most interested in what, in the assessment of academic qualifications, the letters say about a candidate’s teaching.
