Letter of recommendation from a professor with dyslexia?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi! I have been reading this forum for a while but never dared to post. I hope you can help me with a dilemma though.</p>

<p>I want to apply for a PhD in biology and I need 3 letters of recommendation. I already asked 2 professors and I think they are going to be solid letters because those professors know me well. But for the third recommendation I am not sure what to do. There is this professor who is not on a tenure track, she just teaches labs and is in charge of all 200-level biology labs. I had her for lab in my freshman year and then I was a teaching assistant for several labs where she was my direct supervisor. As my teacher and supervisor she got to know me and my biology skills well. She also likes me a lot. </p>

<p>The problem is that she has dyslexia. She does many spelling mistakes and it takes her a long time to write even a very short email. I don’t know how long she would take to write a letter of recommendation. Would I be asking too much of her? And if she does write it for me, what would those who read the letter think if they see many spelling mistakes? But if she doesn’t write it, there are no other professors in biology that know me personally.</p>

2

<p>Just ask her if she’s confident in writing a well-written letter for you. She most likely will have someone else check over her letter anyway. If she doesn’t think she can complete such a letter, she’d say no, right?</p>

<p>Everyone knows their limits, even in case of this professor.</p>

3

<p>I agree with TickleMeElmo. It doesn’t hurt to ask.</p>

4

<p>You probably wouldn’t be the first undergrad to ask for a letter of recommendation for her, she may well have a standard copy that she uses (and has had reviewed by someone else). It may not take her long to pop this out and throw in the gender appropriate pronouns and add your name.</p>