Recommendation Letter Template
A recommendation letter is credible in proportion to how specific it is. Superlatives are free and everyone uses them; a concrete example of something the person did is not, and is what a reader actually weighs.
The structure below works for employment, graduate applications and professional programmes alike.
Write it while the work is recent if you can. A letter drafted six months after someone leaves is noticeably vaguer than one written the week they asked, and vagueness is the failure mode that matters most here.
What separates a strong letter from a polite one
Most recommendation letters are positive, which means being positive distinguishes nothing. What a reader is actually scanning for is evidence that the writer worked closely enough with the subject to say something a stranger could not have guessed from the résumé.
That evidence is almost always a specific incident: a project that went wrong and how the person handled it, a piece of work that changed how a team operated, a moment where they were the one who noticed something. One paragraph of that outweighs a page of adjectives.
The second differentiator is calibration. A letter saying this is among the two or three strongest analysts I have supervised in eleven years is far more useful than one saying excellent, because it tells the reader the size of the comparison group. Only make a claim of that kind if it is true — the people who read these read many of them.
The structure
- How you know the person, in what capacity, and for how long — this establishes whether your opinion carries weight at all.
- What they did, specifically, with enough detail that the reader can picture the work.
- A concrete example, ideally with a number or an outcome attached.
- How they worked with others, which is what most readers are quietly trying to assess.
- A clear recommendation, and an offer to speak further.
One page. A recommendation letter that runs to two is usually padding the second half.
Example recommendation letter
**To whom it may concern,**
I managed Elena Duarte for three years at Cobalt Health, where she worked as a Medical Administrative Assistant in a four-provider practice reporting directly to me.
Elena ran the front office through a period when we grew from two providers to four. She managed the appointment calendar, insurance verification and the claim denial queue, and she did it while the volume roughly doubled.
The clearest example of her impact is the denial rate. When she took over the queue it sat at 11%; within two quarters she had it at 4%, by correcting coding and eligibility errors at source rather than reworking claims afterwards. That change was worth a substantial amount to a practice our size.
She is also the person the rest of the team went to when something was unclear — patient, direct, and willing to say when something was not working rather than absorbing it quietly.
I recommend her without reservation and am happy to speak further.
**Dr Samuel Achebe**, Practice Director, Cobalt Health
Every name, employer and date in this example is invented. Replace all of it with your own.
If you are asked to write your own
This is common and it makes most people uncomfortable, but it is usually a time constraint rather than a lack of enthusiasm. Treat it as a draft the signer will edit.
Write in their voice, not yours. Use the specifics they would plausibly have noticed, keep the praise proportionate to what a manager would actually claim, and include one mild limitation if it makes the rest more credible. Then invite them to change anything — the letter has to be something they are comfortable signing, and a draft that reads as self-written helps nobody.
Resist the urge to write the strongest possible letter. An implausibly glowing one from a direct manager reads as exactly what it is.
When to decline writing one
A lukewarm recommendation is worse for the candidate than none at all, because a reader notices the absence of enthusiasm immediately and reads it as a warning.
If you cannot write something genuinely positive, say so kindly and early — that they may be better served by someone who worked with them more closely, or more recently. It is a harder conversation than writing a weak letter and considerably fairer to them.
Writing for graduate and professional programmes
Academic and professional programme letters are read against a different standard from employment ones. Admissions committees see hundreds, so generic praise registers as nothing at all, and they are specifically looking for evidence about capacity to do independent work.
That shifts what to include: how the person handled something unfamiliar, whether they could be given a problem rather than a task, and how they responded to being wrong. Committees also read comparative statements closely — a ranking against a defined group carries far more weight than an adjective, provided the group is real and stated.
Many programmes ask the writer to submit directly. Confirm the deadline and the submission route early, since a late letter is the applicant’s problem rather than yours.
Frequently asked questions
How you know the person and for how long, what they specifically did, a concrete example with an outcome or number, how they worked with others, and a clear recommendation. Specificity is what makes it credible.
One page. Letters running to two are usually padding the second half, and readers weigh the concrete example far more heavily than the volume of praise around it.
Treat it as a draft for the signer to edit. Write in their voice, keep the praise proportionate to what a manager would actually claim, and invite them to change anything — they have to be comfortable signing it.
Better to decline kindly. A lukewarm letter is worse than none, because a reader detects the missing enthusiasm and treats it as a warning. Suggesting someone who worked with them more closely is fairer than a weak letter.