Guidelines for Letter of Recommendation
At some point in your life, you will most likely need to use someone as a reference ( ex. for Scholarship, Internship, Admission etc.) A letter of recommendation is “expert testimony” regarding your ability as a person to perform a task. Everything in the letter supports the act of making an informed recommendation.
Whoever you use as a reference should be someone you know who can write in detail about your strengths, personality, and accomplishments. This allows readers to learn more about you beyond what they can see by looking at your grades.
Letters should not come from someone who is not qualified to make an informed, expert recommendation. The writer must not exaggerate or lie; writer must not speculate.
For our purposes Letter of Reference may be written in English, Hindi or Marathi. It may be hand written or typed on a computer.
Ideally, your reference will be a teacher who's taught you, a supervisor of an internship you've completed, or a member who supervised an event/course in which you were actively involved, or any adult under whom you have learned or volunteered and developed.
Your reference should know you well enough to be able to:
Use adjectives like hard-working, reliable, dedicated, independent, enthusiastic, etc. to describe you.
Write about your ability to work independently as well as in a team (if applicable)
List specific, positive examples of your achievements (ie: "Neha's group was falling behind, so she made an organized calendar, asked everyone to stick to it, and the group ended up having the best project out of the entire class. This shows that Neha is organized, dedicated, and is a team leader").
It's helpful (but not necessary) if your reference knows you well enough to be able to talk about your career and academic goals.
Don't forget to seek permission of your reference
"I am in need of a letter of recommendation for _____.
Would you feel comfortable giving me a recommendation?
If so, I will provide you with additional information".
Provide all necessary information, including the name of the course you're applying to, the deadline, and any other data required
Format of the letter
1st paragraph – state how long writer has known student, in what context (peer, participant, etc)
Body Paragraphs – could have 2-3 well explained examples or qualities – each example or quality should have its own paragraph – must include not only details, but interpretation (i.e., what should the reader learn about the applicant from the example and why does it matter for the school or college)
Conclusion – may begin with brief additional info (good place for “non-essentials” such as personality traits), then states EXPLICITLY level of recommendation (ex. strongly/highly or otherwise )
Farewell close, name, designation and contact info.