Letter of Recommendation

About this template

An official letter, not a personal note

This template treats a recommendation as correspondence that leaves the organization: masthead, recipient, subject line, numbered paragraphs, attachments, signing authority, and a reply form on page two. The subject line ships as “Subject Letter of Recommendation – enclosed, and request for cooperation”, and the running header carries a document number. What the form is really enforcing is the question a reader has first – who is writing this, and on what basis – which is why the first lettered item is the relationship rather than the praise.

Filling order

1. Replace the masthead company name and the recipient line. Leave the ( Via ) field empty when there is no intermediate approving body.
2. Rewrite the subject as object plus action, putting the candidate and the receiving organization in place of the generic form name.
3. Paragraph 1 is the greeting and paragraph 2 currently says the document is written in order from the recommender’s relationship through handling of personal data. That is form text – replace it with one sentence on what is enclosed and why.
4. Under paragraph 3 sit the three lettered items: a. The recommender’s relationship, b. Verified facts and figures, c. Grounds for the recommendation, and reservations. Each has an explanatory line and three numbered sub-lines. Replace the sub-lines with your own.
5. Paragraph 4 splits the working-level discussion into three rounds – confirming the candidate and verifying employment history, duties and the evidence behind the results, competency assessment and the reply. Paragraph 5 introduces the figures box.
6. Fill the signing block, the drafter, reviewer, approver and consulted officer line, the issue number and date, and the address and disclosure line.
7. On page two, set the reply date, the reply method and the contact number, and send the three-column table (Item reviewed, Comments, Contact) with its seven rows empty.

The three lettered items carry the weight

• a. The recommender’s relationship. “Start by stating when you worked together, and in what capacity.” Give the period down to the month, say whether you supervised the candidate or worked alongside them, and name the work you observed at first hand. A recommendation from someone who never saw the work is worth nothing, and the reader cannot tell which kind they are holding unless you say.
• b. Verified facts and figures. “Write only facts that can be checked, not impressions.” Duties held, volume handled and over what period; results presented against a baseline; and records against which the figures can be checked. A number without a baseline is a claim, not evidence.
• c. Grounds for the recommendation, and reservations. Two or three strengths that connect to the role applied for, what still needs development and under what conditions, and an explicit limit on scope. The template says it plainly: a recommendation is believable only when it states its limits as well as its grounds.

The figures box

Paragraph 5 opens the highlighted box, which ships as “Worked together 3 years 2 months, projects owned directly 11, internal commendations 2, defect rate cut on the line they ran 18%”. Every item in it is countable and checkable; keep that property when you replace them. If you cannot name the source of a figure, leave it in the body as a description instead.

Consent and scope

This letter is written about someone else, so the candidate’s prior agreement comes before the drafting. Say where it may be sent, mark it as not for redistribution beyond that recipient, and set a point at which your copy is destroyed. Paragraph 6 asks for cooperation in keeping the selection process fair and points to a named contact; keep that contact consistent with the details block below the signature.

Common mistakes

• Letting the document number in the page-two notice drift from the one in the header. Both ship with the same number, so changing one breaks the pair.
• Leaving paragraph 2 as the form’s own description of itself.
• Writing warmly but never stating the relationship, so the reader cannot weigh the letter.
• Pre-filling the seven empty rows on page two; that table belongs to the recipient.
• Sending the same letter to several organizations while naming only one recipient.