Writing Letters of Recommendations

Basics
Letters of recommendation are a hybrid of cover letters and evaluations, so review the organization of those documents for basic tips.  

The more specific notes and outline for writing a letter of recommendation are imbedded in these two examples:

Letter of Recommendation Example 1

Letter of Recommendation Example 2

Commitment and Depth

The amount of time and effort necessary to write a decent letter of recommendation depends on a couple factors:

1) How well I know this person, and thus how well can I deduce their success or failure at the proposed job or program?

2) How much do I care whether or not this person succeeds?

3) How willing am I to put my own name, the name of my department and organization etc., on the line to recommend this person?

4) What is my relationship to the audience?  If I know the audience and can speak directly to them, often my "letter of recommendation" consists of a brief email that says something like "Yeah, he's a good one. Contact me if you want to know why."  If I believe the letter is only a formality, I won't waste time on it. If I know the person is staking his or her career on my word and the audience really needs my honest in-put, I may spend hours putting together the right letter.

Writing a decent letter of recommendation:

Like any other type of writing, quality is largely a factor of ethos, specific examples and you attitude. To write a decent letter, you must:

1) Make the person real:  Details concerning the person as a person others want to work with are key here.  In some ways, simply taking the time to develop personalized examples represents what the audience needs to know: is the person someone the writer is willing to personalize, or did the author just toss off another generic letter?  If I really care about the person I'm recommending, I will make that clear.

2) Refer to specific examples:  This is identical to a cover letter, and it operates off of the principle of supplying verifiable evidence to claims: refer to specific documents, dates, grades, projects and so on.  If I am going to write a decent letter, I will request that the person give me the copies of all the work that I have graded, and then I will refer directly to those works, by title, in the letter, as well as to some of the comments I made on the work.  This also helps me remember other things I can refer to in the letter.

3) You Attitude: As always, connect the content of the letter to what you know the reader wants and needs to know.  If I am recommending a student to law school, for example, I emphasize skills, qualities and work produced that I know people need in law school.  I emphasize different things for students applying to medical school or graduate programs in Recreation etc.