When you ask for a recommendation letter, it is common that people ask you to list your main achievements to help them craft a letter. They expect you to send a draft of the letter that they can use as a basis for their letter.
Here is what you should do:
Prepare content. Think about the main points that you want to emphasize in your work: Strong theoretical aspect? Biological importance? Creativity? Collaboration?
Then, write 3-4 paragraphs that describe the aspects of your work that you want to focus on. This will be used as “raw material” - a basis for a letter.
Provide hard evidence for the impact of your work: “This paper was published in XXX, ranked third in the field of computational YYY. It was also reviewed as a special item on the TV evening show, downloaded 56 times from our websites, and cited 34 times (based on Google Scholar)”.
Who and when. Find out the deadline for the letter and who it should be addressed to. Generic letters are not well accepted; The letter should be specifically taylored to what you apply for.
Find out if it has to be given to you or sent directly (closed envelope).
Polish your CV (see below)
Send me your package at least a week before the deadline.
Tips for writing an impressive CV:
The sections should be: Education, Awards, Experience*, and Publication list.
List only relevant items. List ALL relevant items. Your high-school diploma or psychometric is irrelevant, and usually, so is your army experience. Dont forget to include any talk you gave or publication in press. It is very important.
List all your awards, by year of appearance. Competitions or prizes you won in an academic or technical context.
* - Experience can include teaching experience, research experience, and community experience (volunteering). Do not include experience that is not directly relevant (unless it is super impressive).
Example of CV structure, for a grad student:
Yitzhak Newton – CV
EDUCATION
1798-1803 Bar-Ilan University, The Gonda research center. Ph.D. in computational neuroscience with Prof Gal Chechik .
(Summa Cum Laude)
Thesis title: Information theoretic approach to the study of auditory coding.
1797-1798 Bar-Ilan University, The Gonda research center. MSc. in Computer science with XXX. (Summa Cum Laude)
Thesis title: More of the same.
GRANTS AND AWARDS
1798 Bar-Ilan University presidential scholareship
1797 Weizmann Institute, Katzir Travel grant for M.Sc. students
1782 Best paper award, Pashosh kindergarden
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Reviewer ...
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed publications
Conference presentations
Non-reviewed abstracts