Letters

Cover Letters

The Art of the Job Letter
Advice from a tenured professor and blogger detailing how to make certain the committee knows that you are qualified for the position and to write an engaging paragraph about your research without sounding like “an academic cliche generator.”

Joy Connolly’s Advice for Cover Letters
If you have not read Connolly’s guide to the job market, it will be worth your while to review her detailed advice on structuring your cover letter.

Dream a Little Dream of Me
Tenured Radical Claire Potter provides six easy steps to writing an effective cover letter that will make you unforgettable.

How to Get A(n Academic) Job: Applications
This is Josephine Crawley Quinn’s succinct guide to the academic job application, including what to include in your cover letter and curriculum vitae and what to ask of your referees for their letters. Particularly useful is her transatlantic treatment of the process. Building upon her American experience as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkley while being a teacher at San Quentin prison and her current place as a University Lecturer in Ancient History at Worcester College, Oxford, she provides insights into what American and British search committees will be looking for.

Letters of Reference

Joy Connolly’s Advice for Letters of Recommendation
Connolly explains the formalities of asking for and sending letters of recommendation.

How to Get A(n Academic) Job: Applications
This is Josephine Crawley Quinn’s succinct guide to the academic job application, including what to include in your cover letter and curriculum vitae and what to ask of your referees for their letters. Particularly useful is her transatlantic treatment of the process. Building upon her American experience as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkley while being a teacher at San Quentin prison and her current place as a University Lecturer in Ancient History at Worcester College, Oxford, she provides insights into what American and British search committees will be looking for.

The Unrecommendation
David D. Perlmutter, the University of Kansas, recounts the horror of receiving and accidentally providing “unrecommendations,” or the presenting a candidate in a less than suitable or favorable light. Read his helpful tidbits to prevent this from happening to you.

Sending Your Letters
The University now uses Interfolio as its dossier service. It does cost money, but is an efficient service that can deliver your letters electronically or by mail, with rush delivery available as well.