At some point in your life, you may be asked to write a recommendation letter for someone. It is certainly a matter of honor when some ask you to write a recommendation letter but at the same time it is also a very weighty task as well. Before you write a recommendation letter it is very essential to have some preparation so that the letter can be beneficial to the person for whom you are writing it. You may get some best letter template on the Internet but those templates do not work under all circumstances. That is the reason why we have come up with some very effective tips for writing an effective recommendation letter:
- Collecting the information: Before you start writing the recommendation letter the first thing that is highly required is to collect all the information about the person for whom you are going to write the recommendation letter. You can ask the person to give you his resume or curriculum vitae highlighting all his achievement before you begin composing the letter. Once you all the personal and academic achievement of the person you can highlight those in your recommendation letter.
- Think about what to include: Once you get all the details of the person for whom you are writing the recommendation letter you must think about how to present the letter and what qualities and achievement of the person you will highlight. The presentation of the letter matters a lot in the recommendation letter. This is because it shows how much you have supervised the person for whom you are writing the letter. Through the recommendation letter, the representative of the college decides whether the person will be able to adjust to the environment of the college that he has applied.
- Use proper salutation: Proper salutation is very essential for all kind of letters including the recommendation letter. Salutation is something with which you address the representative of the college who will read the recommendation letter and will decide whether the person will fit enough for the position or not. So, writing a proper salutation matter a lot and the two most common salutations that are used in writing recommendation letters are ‘To whom it may Concern’ and ‘Dear Admissions Representative’.
- Start the letter with basics: While writing the letter of recommendation you must start the letter by stating how long you know the person for whom you are writing the letter. You should state clearly how you know the person for example whether the person is your neighbor or your student or he has worked with you. In case the person had worked with you it is necessary to specify the date of employment and if he is a student then describe the year when you taught him.
- Include all the qualities and achievement: The next thing that you need to include is the skills, qualities, achievement, area of knowledge and other assets of the person for whom you are writing the recommendation letter. You can also provide a list of the strength of the person. If you can show the proof of assertions then it will make your letter more credible. You can highlight the skills of the person with some specific examples of instances that you have observed on the candidates.
- Concluding the letter: It will be very effective if you say in the concluding statement that you would like to hire the person again if needed or if you say that the person will do an outstanding performance if selected. Apart from that, you must also share your contact information including your mobile phones and email ID so that the representative can easily get in touch with you in case they have any kind of follow up questions.
- Proofread the letter: Before you submit the letter it is very essential that you proof-read the letter at least once. You must make sure that there is no silly spelling mistake or grammatical errors in your recommendation letter.