How to Make an Impressive Letter of Recommendation (LOR)?

An LOR is one of the most crucial documents required for admissions in international universities. However, students are often confused over how to make an impressive letter of recommendation. If you relate, do not worry, we've got you covered. In this article, we have listed all the tips & tricks on how to write an impressive LOR for various programmes such as MBA, MS, and others.

The letter of recommendation (LOR) being one of the essential documents of your application, it is important to know how to get a good LOR and what are the steps involved in doing so. Moreover, while preparing your LORs, you must remember that all the LORs should contain unique content. This means that you need to include unique anecdotes pertaining to your academic and professional experiences and proficiencies. Therefore, choose two recommenders to write your LORs who can offer a similar perspective though from two rather different instances of your association.

Choosing the Right Recommender

Choosing the right recommender is crucial and it depends on your association with the recommender. Your referee must know you well enough to present and justify your candidature in the most effective manner. He should be able to prove his claims with appropriate examples and anecdotes in the LOR. The recommender must have a clear idea about the applicant’s specific attributes, project work done, and instances that can be cited in the LOR. It is also important not to just mention the instances but also the presentation that would add value to the LOR.

LOR for MS Courses

In case of an LOR for an MS course, if you have submitted two Academic LORs, then you must focus on getting recommenders who can talk about two different experiences or skills. For instance, one of your professors can discuss your learning during your internship, while the other perhaps talks about one of your seminars or workshops. Say, for example, if one recommender mentions “ABC’s technical as well as managerial skills were demonstrated during one of his projects titled, 'Enhancing Efficiency of Screw Press Oil Expeller Roller', where he proved his expertise in problem-solving, innovation, design and manufacturing”, then the other recommender must present some other achievements of yours.

LOR for MBA courses

Moreover, even while preparing your professional LORs for MBA courses, you must brief your recommenders about this. For example, if the recommender says something like “I remember when we were discussing some technical options and upgrades to the basic design of our product, ABC voraciously read various online journals, company operations profiles, and user-interaction details. This helped us to choose the best architecture option for the availability and performance of the application focused on the target customer needs. We saved a lot of time and effort by choosing the right path early and ABC played the key role in making this happen”. The other recommender, even if he/she belongs to the same organization, must make it a point not to include this example. Also, until and unless specified, the format for MBA LOR would only vary in content from that of an MS LOR.

How to write LOR application?

Having understood the importance of an LOR, now let us learn how to write LOR application:

Format of a Letter of Recommendation

A basic LOR should be one page in length and can be divided into five or six paragraphs. The LOR must have the following sections:

• Date
• Name of the recipient
• Recipient title
• Address of the recipient
• Greeting
• Personal introduction: Start the body of your letter by introducing who you are and what is your relationship with the applicant
• Recommendation: What makes an applicant a good fit? You can provide specific examples of skills or qualifications in different body paragraphs
• Closing
• Contact information
• Signature

How to write a good LOR?

Given below are some of the tips on how to write an LOR. These will help the LOR stand out in front of the admission officers or potential employers, who will review it.

• The information provided should be relevant and accurate
• The recommender should have known you for at least six months
• Do not copy from online samples. The Admissions Committee is very strict when it comes to plagiarism. Take inspiration, but do not copy.
• The recommender should discuss the positive traits about the candidate
• The language and composition of the LOR should be lucid and simple
• During the final brush-up of your LOR, take a close look at all the grammatical mistakesand rectify them
• The most important aspect of an impressive LOR is that the sentences are short and on point. Lengthy sentences tend to break the flow of the LOR and fail to convey the crux of what is stated, to the reader
• The LOR should be crisp; not more than 500-600 words in length, fitting in one page
• In a professional LOR, ‘discuss’ the role and responsibilities of the individual and highlight the traits displayed. Do not ‘describe’ job responsibilities, or else it would sound more like a CV than an LOR.
• Provide the accurate contact details of the recommender

Some detailed tips on how to write an LOR:

• Research: The recommender writing your LOR can ask the applicants to provide the academic program requirements or job description, their resume, any specific achievements, or qualifications that they want to highlight. By doing this, one can focus on what is actually the need for the skills and qualifications that are specific to the role for which the applicant is applying.
• Be specific: A template can be used to write an LOR, but, it should appear formal. Provide examples and anecdotes to illustrate why the applicant is the best candidate. Try to choose strong adjectives to describe the applicants rather than using general terms or clichés.
• Stay positive: The LOR should confirm the fact that this applicant is a strong contender for the role to which they are applying. Portray strong enthusiasm, and avoid any comments that show the candidate in a negative light.
• Follow the instructions: Remember that through the LOR, the recommender is vouching for the applicant. So, be sure to follow the submission guidelines carefully, and submit the letter timely.
• Use active voice: To make the LOR appear strong, construct the sentences in the active voice instead of the passive voice. This also makes the LOR appear crisper and more concise.
• LORs should have a very accurate assessment of the applicant’s eligibility and suitability: This means that the LOR should specify the eligibility and suitability of an applicant for the course or program of study. The stress should be more on suitability rather than the recommender sounding like an advocate. For instance, the recommender should specify how you fared in a class, like whether were you in the top 3 or the top 1% in the class/university.
• Do not specify any grades or scores of competitive tests: A good LOR should not mention any grades or scores of competitive tests unless there is a requirement to interpret some academic details. These are already mentioned in your application, so repeating them again in your LOR is not advisable.
• Avoid private information: Do not mention any sensitive or private information, about the applicant, in the LOR, unless it has any relevance or is considered necessary.

What are the skills to be highlighted in the LOR?

The applicant might have a lot of skill sets that can be highlighted while recommending. However, it is not possible to include all of these traits in a single-page document. Thus, you must think carefully about which skills to include. Given below are the skills that can be highlighted in a LOR.

For an Academic Letter of Recommendation (LOR)

• Teamwork skills
• Academic performance
• Passion for the subject
• Leadership ability
• Awards and recognition
• Analytical research skills

For a Professional Letter of Recommendation (LOR)

• Decision-making skills
• Summary of job responsibilities
• Time management and multi-tasking skills
• Management skills and strengths
• Ability to overcome challenges
• Ability to come up with innovative and creative ideas
• Leadership abilities
• Teamwork skills
• Qualities like reliability and integrity