Should I keep my recommendation letter within one page?

Question

I'm an assistant professor at a university. I'm writing a recommendation letter for an undergraduate student, who is applying for an internship job.

The problem that I am facing is that I know this student quite well, so it is fairly easy for me to write a letter that is two pages long. However, I encountered some online advice that suggests that I should keep my letter concise, within one page.

For example, from How to Write a Reference Letter With Examples:

A letter of recommendation should be more than one or two paragraphs; a letter this short suggests you either do not know the person well or do not fully endorse them. However, you want to keep the letter concise and focus on a few key points, so avoid writing more than one page [emphasis mine]. Three or four paragraphs that explain how you know the person and why you are recommending them is an appropriate length.

Question: How important is it for me to keep my letter within a single page, or is it generally acceptable to write a longer letter if I have more information which I wish to include in the letter?

Answer 1

The purpose of the letter is for you to say "I know this student, I've seen her work, and I think she'd would be a great fit for this role." It's nothing more than a sanity check (especially for an internship job.)

You really shouldn't need to take more than a page to say that sort of thing (probably not even that - just a couple of paragraphs would be fine.)

If you start taking multiple pages and really over-doing it, it's more likely to have the opposite effect to a recommendation (it becomes clear you know this student personally, and it therefore sounds more like a personal favour than a considered academic opinion.) Keep it short and to the point.

Answer 2

Good letters of recommendation have the obvious elements:

I know person since date and I believe she will do good work wherever she goes.

She was a student in my xxx course and my yyy course. She showed extraordinary curiosity (or some other claim about her work). Fore example, she did extra research and found xxxx.

I subsequently hired her as a teaching assistant or whatever followon relationship. In that work she proved to be adept at explaining complex material. For example, whatever whatever.

Full name will do good work for you.

Notice the structure:

• lead with your recommendation
• make some claims about the person
  • experience (how you know and evaluate your student)
  • claim about personal attributes
  • proof of claim by example
• close by repeating your recommendation

Now, if you have seven distinct claims about your student, by all means include them all in your letter. As I hiring manager I have put high value on that kind of reference letter. For one thing, the recommending person put some thought into it. For another, I can get an idea what to expect when the person shows up for work.

If you can boil it down to one or two claims, that's good too. But don't be constrained by length.

Answer 3

A message should be communicated cleanly, concisely, with as little fluff as possible; do you really think it takes 2+ pages to communicate that the undergrad would be a valuable asset?

(Now imagine this answer was 17 paragraphs long. Would it be better that way?)