LOR – Letter of Recommendation
Steps on how to write a good LOR, what to mention in a LOR and whatnot.
A letter of recommendation shows the additional skills and character of a person. A letter of recommendation is written by non-relatives who are well informed with you from your personal settings like schools etc. The letter shows the background and capabilities of future employees. It is also known as a “letter of reference”, “reference letter” or “reference”. It is used to assess the ability to deliver required level of service.
What is a letter of recommendation?
LOR is an acronym used for Letter of recommendation which is also known as a letter of reference or in short LOR. As the name suggests, it is a letter that recommends students, employees or any particular individual so that any company or schools can know the person properly. Therefore, we all know that while applying to various universities, colleges, schools you have to listen to the word “LOR” which is mandatory to give to the respective institution with other important documents. This piece of writing is important in every aspect. In the case of a student, it is provided to the educational institutions so that the admission committee can know the applicant properly. Moreover, LOR is a great way to show the applicant’s positive from the eyes of the teacher/employer/guide/faculty. In case you don’t know many applications get rejected just because the student doesn’t provide a proper LOR. If LOR is written properly then it can have major impacts on the profile of the applicant.
NOTE- LOR should never be mixed with Resume, it is a separate document which needs to be short and precise.
How to write a good LOR?
While writing a LOR, there are some points that you should need to keep in mind for better understanding. These points will help the committee to understand the applicant profile more properly. For the relevance of the letter of recommendation follow some of the basic guidelines to look at the insight of the profile. So, if anyone is writing a LOR, do ask them if the letter has all that which is necessary. Let’s see some of the important points that should be taken care of while writing a letter of recommendation.
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Should contain a brief explanation of the relationship with you.
Write and describe your relationship in such a way that the selection or admission committee would know how you interacted with your advisor, guide, faculty, teacher etc. Which means how long they know you, how they write about you in a piece of a paper implies a lot more than you think. The writing about you in LOR will tell in what capacity they know about you.
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Direct observation is important
Having a direct observation is important as it has seen that it always leave a positive impact on the person who reads it for example, when a persona read something like this “I have observed and known him for a long time as he was the team head” will leave a greater impact on the person who is reading about the person than anyone who has an indirect observation. The reader would prefer reading about the person who has direct contact not indirect.
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LOR should reflect your interest in the subject.
Make sure that your LOR should emphasise on how important is the course for you and suitability at large. Emphasis should be more on suitability rather than the recommender acting like an advocate for you.
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LOR should not contain any test scores.
This is the most important thing that needs to be taken care of while submitting and writing the LOR. Unless asked or required don’t write any tests score from your competitive exams. Make sure LOR doesn’t have any of your personal or sensitive information unless it is asked or required.
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LOR should mention your strong points and unique contributions
LOR should help you with your best qualities and positive contributions that you can give to the concerned school or university. This means by having you in the school what positive impact will you give. strengthen your LOR if its provided with examples of true context and has a rationale for the comparison. For example, the recommender should tell you how you stood out among all the others that’s why he/she is writing a recommendation letter for you. What made the recommender do that?
Things to Remember.
- We understand how important is a letter of recommendation for you? But make sure you choose someone who wants to write it for you otherwise he/she will end up writing a messed letter which will be of no use. If you’ll forcefully tell someone he will end up writing just 70 words instead of writing 250-300 words which is mandatory for you to get into your dream educational institution.
- The main point is that a recommendation letter should come from someone who has the authority to do so which means you can’t tell your friend to give you a recommendation letter that will not be acceptable. Make sure you choose a wise person to write a letter for you
- Choose a person who was easy with you while the tenure of working as then he/she would give you the actual feedback on their experience with you(which will be positives only)
- Make a meeting before telling them to write a letter of recommendation, plan out the things and tell them the actual need of getting a letter of recommendation.
- Synopsis on the course and interest should be well known to both the parties then only the recommender will write good things about the same.
- A well-written recommendation will help your application to stand out from others. It will make you a step ahead in the process of selecting and things will become easy for the admission committee to scrutinise.
Questions you need to see before telling the recommender to write a LOR?
After asking these questions the recommended would easily comprehend what he/she needs to write in the letter. All these questions should be asked before so that it becomes easy for both the parties.
- Have you worked with the respective person directly or indirectly?
- Have you observed the person directly?
- Do you know strengths, skills and that you can elaborate?
- Do you have any extra individual’s work?
- If someone will tell you to give feedback on the person can you?
