Imagine the situation: you are a student and you urgently need a letter of recommendation for some occasion ( Letter of Recommendation or Recommendation Letter). How to get started, where to start? Represented? Excellent! It is in this article that you will learn how to write a letter of recommendation to a student on English language. What is a recommendation letter?
The task is not easy, but not the most difficult either. After reviewing the basic points of writing a letter of recommendation, with examples of writing it, very soon you will be able to write as many letters of recommendation as you need. Most importantly, be careful and follow our advice.
Let's first understand what a letter of recommendation is and "what it is eaten with." As a rule, a letter of recommendation is a kind of document that is a review of a person from his side. former leader or an employee. If a student needs a letter of recommendation from a place of practice, for admission to a master's program or for another occasion, then, as a rule, it is written by a teacher, dean, group curator, fellow students, etc.
Thus, the recommendation letter is written by the recommender. For a graduate, a person without work experience, a professor, dean of the faculty can act as a recommender. The letter of recommendation may contain brief description learning skills and qualities, achievements of a person, his main successes during his studies, strengths.
If you decide to help your mentee student and write a letter of recommendation for him, then ask him to provide some data in writing:
- His interests, extracurricular activities, hobbies and his achievements in this (for example, he is the captain of a sports team);
- Data on why he wants to enter this or that job, why he is interested in this area, whether he is ready for this;
- Recipient's address and stamped envelope.
We bring to your attention a number of basic points, following which you can easily cope with a letter of recommendation for a student.
- Introduction
In this part, we write about who and where exactly we recommend. How well we know this student, how he manifests himself in school and outside of it. If you are a teacher, then it is appropriate to indicate your degree etc.
- Activity characteristics
At this point, it is important to write not only about studying. Perhaps your student showed himself in some other way: he worked as a laboratory assistant, secretary, replaced you in lectures, or other options. More details and specifics. But do not exaggerate to praise the student, the selection committee will not accept this.
- Personal qualities
It is important to mention what qualities are inherent this person: attentiveness, diligence, etc. Again, details and specifics are welcome. It is necessary to write the truth, it is not necessary to reward the student with such traits that he does not possess.
Summarize the letter by emphasizing the most important characteristics and make a verdict, draw a conclusion.
So, you already know the basic rules, let's move on to writing the letter itself! 
Sample letter of recommendation for a student in English
Mr. Anders!
John Fonteyn was a student of our college since the 2000 semester. He was always an outstanding student.
Mr. Fonteyn demonstrated his full grasp of the subject matter in his class performance as well as in written work. His assignments were always executed with punctuality and talent. Moreover, he was an enthusiastic participant in class discussions and helped to make the courses rewarding experiences for everyone. He is a hard-working, patient and responsible man.
Therefore, I can recommend Mr. Fonteyn, surely and without any hesitation, for the position of assistant in your travel agency.
Yours truly, Mr. Johns, Boston College
But given example with the translation:
Mr Anders!
John Fontaine has been a student at our college since 2000. He has always been an outstanding student.
Mr. Fontaine demonstrated complete assimilation of the subject material, both in class and in written work. His work has always been distinguished by punctuality and talent. Moreover, he was an active participant in class discussions and helped make the course an experience for everyone. He is a hardworking, patient and responsible person.
Therefore, I can recommend Mr. Fontaine, confidently and without any hesitation, as an assistant in your travel agency.
Sincerely, Mr. Jones, Boston College
Use this example as a tracing paper and try to write your own.
As you can see, writing a letter of recommendation in English is not that difficult. Keep it up, friends, and you will succeed!
letter of recommendation- a document that is perceived in two ways. In some companies, it is treated as a relic from the past, in some (most of all in the West) it is a "start in life", for example, for a student. One way or another, this application to the resume will not be superfluous.
Characteristic
A document written on behalf of a teacher might look something like this:
I, associate professor Petrov Alexey Petrovich, was the teacher of Alexander Dmitrievich Alekseev in the period 2009-2013. in the disciplines "International tourism", "Ethics", "New directions of Russian tourism". During the training, he noted the high level of knowledge of Alexander Dmitrievich: written and oral exams, passed with excellent marks; participation in city student conferences with reports: "Prospects for the development of tourism in Murmansk", "Exit of regional tourism to the international level", "Development of extreme tourism in the region"; successful completion educational and industrial practice in travel agencies"Russia Tour", "Around the World" as a manager.
Alexander Dmitrievich is my diploma student, his project "Rural tourism in the Murmansk region: development prospects" was defended with a unanimous mark of "5". The student conducted his research on the basis of personally collected data, surveys, which gives his work great value.
I am sure that Alexander Dmitrievich Petrov will show himself as an enterprising, responsible, creative employee in his future workplace.
- The high status of the referent, as well as the mention of his personal acquaintance with the bearer.
- Inclusion of opinions "from outside": classmates of the student, teachers, dean's office.
- Specific examples of a student's achievements are a minimum of unfounded laudatory characteristics.
- The mentioned successes should have something in common with the specifics of the desired position.
- Description of both professional, business and personal qualities.
A letter of recommendation is a document that can help the applicant, especially abroad. Its meaningful, stylistically correct, reasonable content often serves as the main factor for the employer to make a decision.
This document may be needed in the following cases: for an internship, admission to graduate school, foreign university etc.
It starts with the title of the document.
Then it is indicated for how long and in what capacity the recommender was acquainted with the student.
After that, there is an assessment of the strengths, abilities of the student, his success during his studies. Here you can talk about his participation in olympiads, various competitions, competitions, about the presence of awards, diplomas, places of honor, etc.
MTUSI student Anokhina Inna Vladislavovna
Student Anokhina I. V. in 2013 graduated from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics, department of production organization, audit and accounting of the Faculty of Economics and Management.
During her studies, she proved herself to be a capable student, striving to constantly improve her level of knowledge. He is a laureate of the competition "The best student of the Moscow technical university communications and informatics. In the team enjoyed respect and authority. Actively participated in the social and cultural life of the university. Has a non-conflict character, differs high level responsibility and hard work.
A letter of recommendation will be useful to a student for admission to a master's program, for employment or transfer to another educational institution. A paper with recommendations can be written by his teacher, a supervisor who is able to correctly characterize the student and write useful recommendations for him.
A letter of recommendation is very important for a student after graduation. The graduate has no experience, so the teacher can evaluate his knowledge, skills and character educational institution. When searching new work, written references are a useful addition to a resume, in addition to a diploma of education received. Therefore, it is recommended that after graduation from the university, contact the teacher with a request to write such a paper.
Another popular reason for issuing such a document is admission to a magistracy. Often, along with other documents, it is required to provide a letter of recommendation from the teacher.
- title part - date, place of execution, information about the addressee, title of the document;
- the main part - basic information about the author of the letter and the student, his characteristics and recommendations for him;
- author's signature.
The addressee should be indicated if it is known in advance to whom the letter of recommendation is intended. If there is no such information, then this attribute is omitted.
In the main part, you need to indicate from whom the recommendations are written and for whom (name of the author of the recommendation letter, his position, attitude towards the student, his name). It should be indicated at which faculty the recommended one studied, the period of study, what specialty he received.
The first part of the text characterizes the knowledge and skills of the student, describes the experience gained in practice, the success of the assimilation of knowledge, academic performance. Next, an assessment of the personality is given - how he interacts with other people, the degree of conflict, the main features are described. All this information will allow you to get the most complete picture of the student, to identify his strengths and weaknesses.
The signed form is given to the student or directly to the destination.
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world universities and business schools. Key tips for writing a letter of recommendation:
1. Selection of referents (those on whose behalf the letter of recommendation will be written)
Behind the scenes, the higher status at the referent, the more solid the letter of recommendation will look. The admission committee of any university or scholarship fund will definitely pay attention to this.
However, the most important criterion is that how well the referent really knows you and can assess your potential. If you choose between the dean of the faculty, who did not teach a single course for you, and the teacher who taught you a number of disciplines during all the years of study, choose the second one! Such a letter of recommendation in the eyes of the selection committee looks much more solid.
And of course, try to choose a teacher in one of your key subjects or in the specialty for which you are going to enter.
And if you manage to combine all 3 conditions, then the letter of recommendation will be the most advantageous.
2.1 How to prepare text easier
If the teacher told you to prepare the text yourself, then it will be easiest for you to do this, gathering opinions from. Even your classmates, friends, colleagues can help you with this - those who know you and can appreciate your potential and your personal qualities. Ask what, in their opinion, are your strengths, what would they emphasize when characterizing you? If it is inconvenient to ask this question directly “on the forehead”, then make a small online survey (i Questionnaire, SurveyMonkey, etc.) and simply send it to your friends, explaining why you need it. When you collect a few opinions, you will already have a base for your letters of recommendation.
Otherwise, if you rely only on your perception, then it will be difficult for you to prepare both your motivation letter and two recommendations at once. Even if it succeeds, it is almost always possible to understand that all documents were written by one person.
Make a plan, in which you outline what details you will include in each of the letters: in a motivational essay, in both letters of recommendation. Of course, some information will overlap in all documents, but since it is assumed that all 3 letters are prepared from different persons, respectively, the angles should be different. In the presence of general plan It will be easier for you to understand what to include in your own essay and what to leave for each of the recommendations.
- Specific examples
A very common mistake in recommendations is to list all possible laudatory characteristics, separated by commas, without giving any examples (I see a lot in letters: “the student proved to be capable, talented, hardworking, thinking, with high potential and leadership qualities”). This is a dead weight letter that has almost no effect on the commission.
To revive these characteristics, it is necessary to bring concrete examples. If it is written that the student is purposeful, this must be explained; if the teacher believes that the student has leadership skills, it is necessary to prove; if he recommends continuing his studies in a master's program, you need to clarify why. Examples make the characteristics really reliable.
- Information about successes, achievements relevant to the chosen program
The volume of a letter of recommendation is usually 1 page of text, so there is simply no place to list all the merits, successes and characteristics. That is why the text of the letter should be tailored to the requirements of the program.
If, for example, you are applying to finance, then special emphasis should be placed on analytical skills, the ability to work with numbers and analyze a large amount of information. Usually, the websites of the programs themselves indicate which qualities are primarily important for applicants.
- Characteristics for professional and personal qualities
The fact that you have well-developed analytical skills, you can absorb a huge amount of professional material, and are brilliant at research methods etc. - that's what you're interested in admission committee first of all. But, having received this information, the members of the commission want to know what kind of person comes to them. This is a potential future representative and face of our university - how does it suit our culture, the image of our university? Therefore, in letters of recommendation it is very important to indicate personal qualities - how well you can work in a team or individually, how well your communication skills are developed ... This information should logically complement your profile, and of course, should correlate with what you wrote in your motivation letter.
3.1 Allow more time for preparing recommendations than you expect
(very often you will need to additionally either coordinate the text with a teacher who may be away, or wait for a signature and seal in the dean’s office for a whole week),
3.2 Check in advance in what form it is required to provide letters of recommendation to all universities where you are applying:
- in a free format or in a special form of your chosen university,
- is it enough to scan the recommendations online or do you need to send the originals by mail,
- is it possible to download letters on your own or only a teacher can do this through his official university email.
It is better to find out all this in advance in order to immediately understand how many sets of documents to prepare and in what format.
3.3 After you have fully prepared all the basic documents (motivation letter, CV and references), check how all the information is logically connected whether there are disagreements or excessive repetition. This is such a 'reality check' before sending a set of documents.
The structure of the letter of recommendation should be next view:
Context
- In what capacity and for how long has the referrer known the candidate.
Candidate Achievements
- The overall assessment of the abilities of the candidate who played important role in the course of training, assignments, projects, research or official duties.
- Characteristics of the activities and achievements of the candidate during the mentioned period of study or work (here you can list awards, honors, certificates, etc.).
- Characteristics of the candidate's strengths, especially in comparison with other students or work colleagues with a similar background.
Personal qualities of the candidate
- An assessment of the candidate's motivation and maturity (especially if we are talking about admission to a master's or doctoral program).
- Characteristics of leadership and communication qualities, the ability to work in a team or individually.
Conclusion
- In conclusion, the recommender must justify why he believes that the recommended candidate should be accepted to the the specified program training or award a grant.
- What follows is the phrase that additional information about the candidate can be provided upon request.
- At the very end, the surname and initials of the recommender, his position and contacts are indicated ( email address, telephone).
The document must be signed by the recommender. If possible, the recommendation can be printed on the official letterhead of the institution where the recommender works. However, this is not always possible, so you can do without it.
