Recommendation Letter

Automata

Letter: Students must interview a peer and write a recommendation letter on their behalf for graduate school or a job.

This can be used in any senior level Computer Science course. Though the topic of this assignment does NOT fit in any course specification, it exemplifies the type of writing that adults often have to do on the job. (I write 50-75 pages worth of recommendation letters a year.)

The goal here is to make students talk to each other with the goal of finding out the positive qualities the other student has, so that they can then turn around and write a recommendation letter for that student.

This type of writing is unfamiliar to the students, since they are rarely asked to advocate on someone else's behalf. Also, computer science students often shy away from personal interaction, and this makes them practice one-on-one interviewing skills, which will be very useful for them in the future.

Arup Guha

Letter, Interview

Two Weeks

Writing, Speaking, Listening

Persuasiveness

Writing a letter or recommendation for a colleague.

N/A