Reference letter advice

[callmeswags]

Hi folks. Looking for some advice about CaRMS reference letters. I have a potential referee who is extremely supportive of my career goals (applying exclusive to FM) and a good writer, but has never written a CaRMS letter before. He was asking me for some general guidance re.: 

- Who should the letter be addressed to? (i.e. "Dear admissions committee, to whom it may concern, etc.")
- How long are the letters generally?
- Any other general tips or requests

Thanks! 

[shikimate]

- I would address it to "admission committee member"

-  the writer of the letter should always self identify what their role is and in what capacity they've worked with you. The more the reader learns about the writer, the more they can give credibility to what they say. 

- the length is not as important as readability. For example if you ever try to read an OR note that's like a single giant paragraph, it's impossible to find anything in there. But if they have headings and are appropriately paragraphed, then even a long note is easy to read.

-  the headings should reflect what aspect of you this person can comment on. For example, someone might particularly want to talk about your communication skills or teamwork skills or any of the other CanMed skills. But beware some attendings just write you are the best for every category and that sounds suspicious because it's too good to be true. So discuss with them what is it that they really can compliment you on.  If you have worked with someone for 12 months whereby they can comment on 6 different things, they that's appropriate for a long letter, but if you've only worked with someone for 2 weeks and they can say the most about 2 things, then maybe that's just a 1 page letter. 

-  it's always helpful if they identify on a semi-quantitative scale their impression, for example they have worked with 30 medical students before, and your skill for X is amongst top 5, etc.

[callmeswags]

Awesome, thanks for the advice. I hadn't even considered suggesting headings. Very welcome to any other input or suggestions.