Your friend, neighbor, relative, or a team member may ask you to write a letter of recommendation when applying for a job, scholarship, internship, volunteer opportunity, or for an admission in a college/university. The hiring manager may want to know whether there is someone who could vouch for the candidate. The letter, if written well, could help him or her in getting an employment, monetary grant, enrollment in an institution, or joining an organization. A frank, candid, and honest recommendation helps the recipient in getting a decent insight into the talent and performance of the applicant.
Things to consider when writing the recommendation letter
Before you get carried away emotionally, it's necessary to consider these points.
It's necessary to assess whether you can provide a positive recommendation before accepting the request. If there is nothing positive about the applicant, it's better to deny the request immediately respectfully. This will give them time to approach another person.
What to include?
Since the recipient of the letter doesn't know you, it's important that make it clear who you are, why you are recommending the applicant, how well do you know him or her, and your consolidated opinion about the applicant. Therefore, ensure the letter of recommendation include these four points:
Introduction: Just because recommendation comes from influential people, it's not necessary that the recipient may know you. So in the first paragraph, introduce yourself. You can mention where you are working and in what capacity. The introduction paragraph must also state why you're recommending the applicant.
Describe your relationship: Expand on the ways through which you know the applicant. Whether the applicant is your subordinate, colleague, team member, or just a friend needs to be cleared. What made you to recommend the applicant is important for the recipient to know. To make the reason clear, provide details about the good qualities of the applicant. Whether it is the sincerity, punctuality, approach towards work, and the quality of never give up of the applicant, or the ability to make big in his or her life must be stressed on in the letter.
Applicant's talent: Any organization, be it profit, non-profit, or educational, seek candidates who are talented and have performed well in their jobs, academic lives, and social activity. To help them understand, provide specific examples that best describe the applicant's talent. The examples will show the recipients how the applicant has performed and they can visualize the kind of contributions the applicant can make for their organizations.
Your opinion about the applicant: The letter should conclude with your opinion about the applicant. For this, you must summarize why you think the person being recommended deserves the opportunity and how he or she can contribute to the organization.
Letter of recommendation template:
The structure of the recommendation letter is vital to follow. No matter whether the recommendation is for a student or a working professional, it must include a brief introduction about yourself, the applicant's background, talent, experience, a brief story about how you know him or her, and a closing statement stating your opinion about the applicant.
[Your Name]
[Address, City, State, Zip]
[Email Address]
[Phone No. (optional)]
[Today's Date]
[Recipient's Name ]
[Title]
[Company/Organization Name]
[Address, City, State, Zip]
Dear [Recipient 's Name],
1st Paragraph - Short Introduction
[Let the recipient know who you are, where you're working, and in what capacity. ]
2nd Paragraph
[Put lights on how you know the applicant. Provide details about how you came to know the applicant. Whether you have worked with the applicant or have observed him or her must be clarified in this paragraph.]
3rd Paragraph
[Provide details about the talents of the applicant. Give a couple of examples where the applicant has performed exceptionally well. The details could be about his or her academic excellence, outstanding contribution to a company's project, etc.]
4th Paragraph
[Conclude the letter by stating your thoughts and opinion about the applicant. Just mention why and how do you think the applicant can be a good fit for the organization.]
To learn more about writing a letter of recommendation, read the links provided below. You can also browse our site and use recommendation letter sample for free.
Letter of Recommendation Sample
On this page, we will cover all the information you need for writing the letter with the help of some sample of the letters. These sample letters are in their simplest format and will help you understand the whole concept of writing a letter for recommendation.
The practice of drafting such letters has become common. The main reason could be that this letter is easy to write, it is does not cost anything, and it gives good results. Please do search through our recommendation section.
Letter of Recommendation tips