Tips and Examples for Writing Award Nominations - for ME staff and faculty


Below are my suggestions to make writing nomination letters a little easier and faster. Take from this what is useful to you.

These suggestions are the approach I follow to prepare nomination letters for ME faculty and staff (this is known as ghost-writing, where I'm writing on behalf of the nominator). The approach has worked well for me. Some of the information will be common sense for you, but we also often skip the common-sense steps! If you do each of the steps, you'll have an easier time writing the nomination letter.

- Andrea Morris
ME freelance technical & awards writer
morri494@purdue.edu

Contents:

Guidelines and tips for writing a nomination letter

Contents of the letter

Sample letter

Nomination Letter Mad Libs

Guidelines and tips for writing a nomination letter.

Step 1: Gathering info.

  1. Set up a conversation/interview with the nominee. Don't skip this step! This is the #1 most important thing you can do to make the rest of the process easier and faster.

We struggle to write nomination letters when we don't know enough about the nominee and his/her accomplishments. Even when we know our colleague well, we don't necessarily have thorough knowledge of their research or work accomplishments, and resumes and CVs provide details but no perspective. It becomes a real struggle to write a nomination letter when you are working with only partial information.

For this reason, I have always begun with researching the nominee through a conversation with him or her. (I think of it as either an informal interview or a formal discussion.) For me, a 15-20 minute conversation is enough for a one-page support letter, and 30-45 minutes provides enough information to write a detailed two-page nomination letter. Your requirements may be different, but that's a good place to start.

Step 2: Prepping for the interview.

  1. Briefly scan the nominee's CV or resume. What jumps out at you? A certain award won, a type of work they aim for, service/volunteer work they do? Take note of anything that's interesting to you, as well as their most obvious achievements.
  2. Briefly review the nomination requirements from the awarding organization and/or the organization's website. Jot down notes of how you might address each of the requirements.

Step 3: During the interview.

  1. Let the interview unfold like a conversation. Follow your curiosity. Ask follow-up questions on what interests you. Dig deeper than the accomplishment itself. For example, you might want to mention that they've previously been recognized with another award. In that case, ask why they feel they were chosen to receive the award.


Step 4: Writing the letter.

  1. Outline the letter. Now that you've gathered background information and details, outline your letter. Think about your 3 supporting arguments and fill in details.
    Keep the outline as detailed or as rough as you prefer. You just need something to get started.
  2. Next, start writing. Write anything you can as it comes to mind. Just get sentences on paper. They don't have to sound good, and they don't have to flow or work together. Don't think about what the selection committee might be looking for. Don't think about how your letter will be received. Just write honestly about what you know about the nominee.
  3. Once you hit a wall with writing, move around what you've written to fit into your outline.
  4. Review what you've written and think about where you need to fill in details. If you've made assertions about the nominee, make sure you've backed them up with details or facts.

Note: If you find that you can't back something up with any of the information you have, you have two options:
1. Get more information from the nominee. In this case, I usually email the nominee with specific questions, something like, "How did you work with your colleague to create _____? What was the process like? How do you think your collaboration style affected the outcome? What would your colleague say about how you worked on this project?"

Step 5: Final steps

  1. When your draft is prepared, you may ask the nominee to review it for accuracy. It's frequently acceptable for the nominee to read your letter, but typically you get to make the decision based on whether you feel comfortable with it.
  2. Paste the text of the letter onto ME letterhead and make sure you've adhered to any length/format requirements.