Suzanne W. Churchill

Request a Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are a delightful way for me to reconnect with you and play a part in your future plans. Nevertheless, they require a significant commitment of time, research, and focus—from both of us. If you want me to write you a recommendation…

Please take the time to read what follows:
  • BEFORE you ask me for a recommendation, think about whether I’m the best person for the job. The first thing I state in any recommendation letter is how long and in what capacity I’ve known you. If I’ve known you as an advisor but never taught you in a class, or if I’ve taught you in lower level course but never seen your advanced work, my testimony may not be convincing—no matter how much I like, respect, or admire you.
  • Please ask my permission BEFORE you submit my name to any person, institution, or organization.
  • Give me at least two weeks of notice (if you don’t, I may not be able to produce the letter). Three or four weeks would be even better.
  • Give me a due date (yep, here’s your chance to give a professor a due date—pretty neat, huh?).
  • Remind me what courses you took with me and when. If you’ve saved any papers or projects from these courses, send scans of them, ideally with my comments on them.
  • Please respect my decision if I say no: I will only write for students I feel I can endorse strongly, and trust me, you don’t want a lukewarm letter. I will tell you if I don’t think I’m the best person to write your letter. In such cases, it has little to do with how fabulous I think you are and more to do with what courses you’ve taken with me and whether I’m the best person for the job.
  • To help me write a strong recommendation, please send me your resume, application essay, and informal responses to the following questions:
    1. What are you applying for and how are you framing your application? (DO NOT just send a link—I don’t have time to explore websites! Please provide a concise description of the programs/positions along with your application materials.)
    2. What specifically is drawing you to this position or program? (How can I talk about what makes you a good fit? If you’re applying to multiple graduate programs, let me know if there are particular programs/people that you especially hope to work with and why: I will try to add comments to those specific letters.)
    3. When you think about the work you did in my class or classes, what makes you most proud? (This could range from particular claims, interpretive insights, argumentative structure, presentation skills, etc. to persistence and commitment as demonstrated in office hour visits or otherwise, the ability to take and apply feedback, group facilitation and more.) Please attach any relevant papers, projects, or a portfolio so that I can quote from them directly. (Feel free to point me to what you see as the best bits, if you have a sense of what those are.)
    4. What are you hoping my letter will cover? (Think about who else is writing for you, and what they will cover. What gaps might need to be addressed, even if they’re not obviously part of what I might write about otherwise?)
    5. What stories help bring you to life for an admissions or selection committee—stories that you don’t have room to include in your own materials? (Think about times you’ve risen to unusual challenges or otherwise demonstrated relevant skills and traits. Give me a quick snippet of a story and I can try to weave it into my letter. Of course I will be writing about your work in class, but selection committees like to see you from multiple angles.)
    6. Organize me! If you would like feedback on your application essay (strongly recommended), let me know and give me a deadline. Please remind me of feedback and application deadlines a week ahead and prompt me (gently) every few days until the rec is submitted.
  • If you would like feedback on your application essay, share it as an editable Google doc, and give me a deadline for providing feedback. Remind me if you don’t hear back.
  • When submitting my name to application portals, please enter all my data, including my full name, title, and contact information:
    • Suzanne W. Churchill, Professor of English
    • 209 Ridge Rd., PO Box 5000, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28035
    • (704) 894-2695
    • suchurchill@davidson.edu
  • Give me all the details about where the letter needs to go: A contact name and email address, or web address if it is to be submitted electronically.
Last but not least, let me know the results of your application.

Whether it’s joyful or disappointing news, I’m here for you, cheering you on and eager to follow your career, wherever it takes you.

Acknowledgements: These guidelines were borrowed from Dr. George H. Williams’ “My guidelines regarding student requests for letters of recommendation” and supplemented with Dr. Betsy Bolton‘s excellent list of questions, which I use with her permission.