推荐信在海外是非常重要的材料，学生入学，毕业生找工作，甚至想移民的人申请绿卡，都需要推荐信。

在中国，现在推荐信也起到一定的作用。一个令人不快的普遍现象是，学生申请出国读书，往往自己写好推荐信，推荐人很少改动就签名了，许多年来一直如此。过去对了解情况的人造成很大困惑，那就是，如何判断一个学生，如果推荐信都是千篇一律地说好？最近文小刚终于觉得应该采取行动了，给大家寄来一封正式的信，希望改变这种局面。

我过去一直是拒绝学生自己起草的推荐信的，也往往对这些学生心生反感。我自己写推荐信时慎之又慎，这造成了一些学生不敢找我写推荐信，可惜我们的一些同事根本不在乎，照样按照这种不诚实的“传统”来，向国外推荐出去一些根本不合格的学生。

国内的一些单位申请奖励往往也请本人拟好推荐信，有时这是不得已的办法，因为单位的头头不是小同行，对被推荐的人工作的细节不甚了了。好在这些申请往往有许多复杂的过程要过，推荐信的作用不是主要的。学生则不同，除了平时的成绩，只有推荐信可以借助了。

下面是文小刚的信：

Dear colleagues:

In our graduate admission process, we become aware that a Chinese applicant drafted his own recommendation letter. The Professor modified the letter and signed it. This may not be illegal, but is regarded as cheating by US standard. As a result, we stop recommending the student for admission. Some professors in China may not understand how professors in US view the recommendation letters. So here I would like to offer some explanations.

Recommendation letter is a very important part of the academic system in US. Admission, job offering, promotions, and awards, are all mainly based on the recommendation letters. People here do not count how many Science or Nature papers. The real important work are appreciated by too few people at beginning to be published on Science or Nature. So people make decisions based on letters, which reflect the opinions of the experts or the leaders of a field. (In contrast, the citation count ainly reflect the opinions of average researchers in the fields.) So an environment and a habit of writing honest recommendation letter is very important for the long term health of scientific community. This is why people in US treat recommendation letter as a very serious matter.

Regarding the letter for students, it is OK for the letter writer to ask information, such as CV, grades, publications list, awards, etc, from student. However, it is not OK to let student to write or draft the recommendation letter by himself/herself. This is very serious. If people in US get an impression that Chinese applicants write or draft their own recommendation letters (which may not be the case for most Chinese applicants), then no Chinese students can enter graduate school in US (which may be a good news for Chinese professors). Students writing or drafting their own recommendation letter is also regarded as a shameful act in US.

I hope the above information is helpful. Establishing an environment and a habit of writing effective, useful, and honest recommendation letters is very important for the future of Chinese science.

Sincerely yours

Xiao-Gang Wen