My professor made a typo on my last name in a recommendation letter

January 26, 2015 1:36 PM

Hello everybody, I just received a great recommendation letter I asked from a former professor, however, he made a typo on my last name several times throughout the letter. Can you advise me a way to ask him to correct it without making him lose face and feel embarrassed? It's a quite delicate situation, thank you for any ideas!
posted by lite to Education (19 answers total)

Best answer: Are you absolutely sure this absolutely must be done?

I don't think it's worth the ill will and possible foot-dragging that will result. If nothing else, it'll suggest to the reader that he actually wrote it rather than telling you to write it for him to sign.

When I helped file grad school applications (granted a million years ago, most were made on a typewriter) it was not the sort of thing anyone cared about. People misspell names all the time. (Seriously, my name is not Lynn.)
posted by Lyn Never at 1:42 PM on January 26, 2015 [13 favorites]

Let it go. It's not that important. The person reading knows he means you.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:43 PM on January 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

"Hi! Thanks so much for the great letter, I really appreciate it. I noticed that you misspelled my last name a couple of times. It's xxxx, not yyy. Would it be possible for you to send a new copy? Thanks!"
posted by ManInSuit at 1:44 PM on January 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

I agree with Lyn Never. The "absent minded professor" is a stock character for a reason. If it's a good letter, the fact that your last name is misspelled won't reflect poorly on you in the least. As long as the spelling is close enough that it's clear that the letter is about you, I would move on and be happy to have received a great letter!
posted by telegraph at 1:47 PM on January 26, 2015

Best answer: Honestly, it doesn't seem to me to be a particularly delicate situation. I've written a few letters of recommendation. If someone sent me an email pointing out I'd misspelled their name, that would not cause me to lose face or feel embarrassed. I'd just send a new version and not think about it. That is far from the most embarrassing thing that happens to me on any given day.

(Letting it slide and sending a letter with your name misspelled, as others suggest, is not a disaster either. But if I were in your shoes, I'd want the best possible letter, and to me, a letter with a misspelled name suggests, albeit in the smallest of possible ways, that the writer was not being entirely thoughtful, or was not as familiar with the subject of the letter as you might want to convey.)
posted by ManInSuit at 1:49 PM on January 26, 2015 [17 favorites]

Response by poster: I just received the letter and I obviously reacted too fast without thinking. It's not that big of a deal as you said, thank you very much Lyn Never!
posted by lite at 1:50 PM on January 26, 2015

If it's something like spelling Roberts as Robarts then just leave it. If it's on the scale of Lunchbag Rodriguez then have him change it.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:50 PM on January 26, 2015 [21 favorites]

Seconding that it is not actually an embarrassing request. I write letters for my students all the time and this has happened to me once or twice. I was not embarrassed to have it pointed out and it took like five seconds to fix.
posted by lollusc at 2:18 PM on January 26, 2015

It's not a big deal for anyone to fix a couple of typos, nor will he lose face over being asked to do so. Presumably he wrote the letter because he wants to help you, right?
posted by seymourScagnetti at 2:19 PM on January 26, 2015

No big deal to have him change it! And honestly, I would. Whoever reads the letter might wonder how well this guy knows you if he can't even spell your name. Small chance, but one worth eliminating.
posted by jessca84 at 2:23 PM on January 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

I am a professor and would change it in an instant if it was pointed out to me. I'd also suspect, if I received a letter with a typo, that the writer didn't know the subject well.

That being said, I also think letters are among the last things considered in an application, so it is not likely to make a difference.
posted by procrastination at 2:47 PM on January 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

Another vote for it's not really a big deal. Anecdote time! My name is Greta, and if you're typing fast, it's really easy to accidentally type Great, which spellcheck is totally fine with, since it's a word. I once got a lovely letter of recommendation talking all about how awesome Great Mylastname is. It was for a cattle call job fair thing, so it went out to a bunch of different potential employers. I don't think anyone noticed, and I got two job offers. (I was prepared to claim that he just calls me that, because I am! But it never even came up.)
posted by Weeping_angel at 3:04 PM on January 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

I think as long as it is correct somewhere in the letter (especially the first mention), or it is an obvious typo (Smiht instead of Smith) I wouldn't worry about it. If your name is Robards and he spelled it Roberts throughout I might ask for a correction, as it brings up a whiff of a form letter, or maybe your prof has you mixed up with someone else.
posted by Rock Steady at 3:09 PM on January 26, 2015

Ask for a new letter - but be mindful of (as Lyn Never put it) "foot-dragging". I'm sure the professor will have no problem fixing the error, but my experience with this kind of thing is that the task of making the fix and getting the letter back to you might get put on the bottom of the To-Do pile and thus might not happen quickly. Go ahead and use the letter you've got, then if you get the update in a timely manner, see about switching the new one in.
posted by doctor tough love at 4:01 PM on January 26, 2015

I agree that this should be trivial for a prof to correct -- if he wrote a glowing recommendation, he wants to help you succeed, and surely would be responsive to a gentle request to correct the letter. (When I got recommendation letters from my grad school professors, I used them multiple times during my post-Masters job search, and it would have pained me greatly to send out many copies of a letter with errors in it.) Unless by "delicate situation" you mean there's some sort of complicating back story that makes it more awkward than usual, in which case, enlighten us so we can advise you on that, nu?

If you are worried about sheer procrastination or it being difficult for him to find the document he wrote originally, you could type up the text (with the name corrected) and send it to him in a Word document (make sure to use the same margins and font, of course). Then all he has to do is sign electronically, or print/sign/scan and send it to you.
posted by Smells of Detroit at 6:05 PM on January 26, 2015

I read and write a lot of recommendation letters and I do think it's very important for this to be corrected -- it gives the impression that the professor doesn't know you that well and that greatly diminishes the value of a strong recommendation. Even if not every reader feels this way, do you want one third of readers throwing the recommendation out?

But I also agree that this should be easy to fix, especially if you bring it up quickly, succinctly, and politely. Your professor might be embarrassed but he will still be very glad to have the chance to fix it.
posted by willbaude at 8:44 PM on January 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm sure you've put this together, but I'd do a combination of the above-mentioned. Ask him to fix it (and he's very unlikely to feel offended), but if you haven't heard back in a set amount of time (3 days - 1 week), just send it as-is (and the job/school is very unlikely to take the typo seriously).

Then, the next time you need a recommendation, you send prof a note asking for another letter. "The basic content of the letter you wrote for (other job) was great, you could use that with just a few revisions. The company is (name), the job is (job title, topic/field, etc) and there's a couple of spots where your spellchecker didn't catch Peterson instead of Petersen. I still have a copy of it I can send you, if you can't find the file."
posted by aimedwander at 6:31 AM on January 27, 2015

I think the one off (minor) embarrassment of getting the correction outweighs the multiple and (potentially) significant effect of having people wonder if your professor really knows you well. Get the correction.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:19 PM on January 27, 2015

Response by poster: Just to give an update : I pointed it out politely and he sent me another copy on the same day. I really overthought this.
posted by lite at 4:05 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]