: Re: A letter of recommendation I am a programmer/engineer who has been asked to write a letter of recommendation for a colleague, who wishes it to help him pursue higher education. Since I feel

@Angie602

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I don't have much hands-on experience with recommendations. Here's my thoughts from a writing perspective.

The role of a great recommendation is to explain what makes a particular person stand out. That means you need to be able to describe, at least to yourself, what makes this one person special. One way to do that is to heap on superlatives, just generally explaining that the person is extremely extremely awesome. This approach is giving you trouble - it's exaggerated and plagued both by buzzwords and "recommendation inflation." The other way is to write well enough that you manage to convey the person's uniqueness and special qualities.

Specific is better than vague. Refer to particular characteristics and incidents rather than "general awesomeness"; give specific examples and make clear why they were impressive.
Sounding personal, to my mind, adds a ton to a recommendation, because (to my mind) a sincere recommendation is better than a generically glowing one. Of course, you have to balance this with sounding professional. But yes, you can do both.
On the other hand, "impartial" may be overrated - you're recommending the guy; you'd better be on his side, or why are you signing your name? :P What you mean by this is that you want your recommendation to sound sound and well-judged rather than somebody cheer-leading a pal just because the pal needed a favor. So what you're going for isn't impartiality, it's establishing your own credentials. You do that by backing up your recommendation with good reasoning and demonstrations (showing that your opinion is well-considered and well-supported), and by referring to substantial achievements (both yours and the recomendee's) which show that you're experienced.
The biggest concern is your target audience. The trouble is, if everybody's recommended as "brilliant" and "enthusiastic," then a more realistic recommendation is likely to fall short, and seem like a snub, or at least an unenthusiastic recommendation. So you need to get a sense of both what the target reviewer is looking for/willing to accept, and of your own eloquence of portrayal - whether or not your honest, sincere recommendation is effective enough to be clearly positive and enticing to somebody who doesn't know you or your colleague.

I repeat the proviso: I've got no experience with writing or receiving recommendation letters. I don't know what's actually effective or expected. I just know what I myself would want to write, and to have written about me.

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