HOW TO WRITE AN ACADEMIC LETTER

NGUYEN PHAN THE HUY, DDS, MSc.

WHAT IS AN ACADEMIC LETTER?

Recommendation letter

Cover letter

Cover letter

Cover letter

Cover letter

Motivation letter

Introduction letter

Introduction letter

Introduction letter

Motivation letter

Cover letter

Recommendation letter

Introduction letter

GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

LETTER’S CONTENT

1. Beginning of the letter
2. Salutation and Request, Reason
3. Introduction of candidate’s project, his/herself
4. Promise and/or reconfirmation
5. Courtesy
6. Ending of the letter

LETTER’S CONTENT

To whom it may concern,

Dear prof.,

Dear prof. Tohru

IKEDA,

• Introduce the reason of writing this letter

Ex 1: I am very pleased to recommend Dr NGUYEN Van A as a candidate for the

Master program in Public Dentistry in Taiwan next year.

Ex 2: I am writing this letter for applying the UBC Scholarship in 2018 with PhD Program in Oral Radiology.

Introducing briefly the candidate’s academic background and his/her appropriate strengths

At this moment, he is working at my Department as a young researcher and lecturer.

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Don’t forget softskill and social distributions

The importance of this scholarship for developing candidate’s country/establishment

We plan to develop Bio-Molecular Laboratories in a near future and Dr. T is one of the young core members for these projects. Therefore, he should be trained for fundamental and clinical research skills concerning this domaine to be able to approach our general objectives. I would like to insist that his training is very important for the development of our faculty.

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• Confirm candidate’s appropriate strengths for the indicated position
• Express the strong support and the expectation from the referencee

Ex1:

With his excellent academic profile, and his graduate studies, Dr ABC will become a strong candidate to become a professor in his faculty and educate the next generation of health care professionals in Vietnam.

So, I strongly recommend Dr. ABC for admission into this scholarship program.

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Ex2:

Mr John is not only self-confident but also modest and open-minded to achieve new knowledge. I strongly believe that he has enough skills and willingness for improving his study and career.

Therefore, I fully support Mr John's application for the ABC Scholarship and I believe that he will continue his success in his study and research.

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GRAMMAR

Passive voice

ELEMENTS OF A LETTER

• Sender name and contact information (address, email, phone…)
• Recipient’s name and contact information (address, email, phone…)
• Letter’s place and date
• (Object)
• Letter’s content
• Signature

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PAPER’S LAYOUT

PAPER’S LAYOUT

• Margins: bottom 5-10cm, others 2-3 cm
• Orientation: portrait
• Size: A4
• Column: 01
• Recto-verso: no

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TEXT’S LAYOUT

• Font: Times New Roman
• Size: 12-14
• Bold, Italic, Underline: limited
• Capitalization: Proper name, beginning of sentence, after fullstop,…
• Paragraph format (next)

PUNCTUATION

• Full stop: at the end of each sentence, paragraph
• Comma
• Dear Prof.,
• Sincerely,
• Exclamation mark: never use

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ABBREVIATIONS

• Limit to use
• Abbreviation rules
• Dr
• Prof.
• Mr, Mrs

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

NGUYEN PHAN THE HUY, DDS, MSc.

REFERENCES

• http://slideplayer.com/slide/5687476/
• http://ieltsmega.com/how-to-write-introduction-body-and-closing-paragraph-for-letters/
• Composing of a french administration letter, Ms Vo Tuyet Nhung, 2011

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