June 30, 2000

Why You Can't Trust Letters of Recommendation

By ALISON SCHNEIDER

Friends use puffery and foes carry out vendettas -- while everyone fears lawsuits

Need to write a recommendation for someone going on the academic job market? Trying to decipher an outside review in a tenure case? Here are a few helpful hints:

"Good" does not mean good. It means hopelessly mediocre. "Solid" is shorthand for plodding and unimaginative. And "flashes of brilliance"