The first pit of recommendation letter: exaggerating and fabricating experience.
When the recommender is not a big bull or a benchmark in the industry, the recommendation letter is more of a process/non-reduction, and only needs to explain some advantages of the applicant in an appropriate way. For example, professor recommendation usually focuses on learning attitude/academic ability, and some points worth detailing are positive/diligent/persistent/curious/independent thinking/innovative thinking. Few undergraduates can make great achievements in scientific research, so scientific research only needs to briefly explain the content and innovation. Emphasize that you can attach other advantages after learning, such as good communication skills (both communication skills and bilingual control skills) and cooperation skills. Usually, the recommendation letter needs to select two or three aspects, and combine specific examples to show the applicant's comprehensive quality. The difference between Shen Bo/Ben Shen Bo and Shen Shuo is that graduate students should have strong scientific research ability, and doctors are most interested in scientific research ability. Therefore, both of these two applications need to make more efforts in scientific research, and show the applicant's comprehensive scientific research ability as much as possible through language processing, such as literature research/data analysis/experimental design/methodology/programming.
Specific concrete
The second pit of recommendation letter: generally speaking, superficial.
Such a recommendation letter is not only completely impersonal, but also makes the judges feel ignorant. A letter of recommendation without specific details, flowery rhetoric and the same praise as shouting slogans will only make people disgusted. Therefore, after selecting the points worthy of in-depth discussion by the applicant, it is necessary to briefly explain them with relevant specific examples. It's best to have some detailed data, which makes people feel that you have reached such a conclusion, which can not only enhance the credibility and persuasiveness of the recommendation letter, but also avoid similarities.
marked difference
The third pit of recommendation letter: apply template, with high similarity.
Generally speaking, a school will require three letters of recommendation (some schools have five letters), while most students in China need to write letters of recommendation to professors/company leaders, so they are likely to have high similarity in style, language and content. In order to avoid this situation, we need to pay attention to the differences in content. In addition to * * * learning and scientific research ability, each letter of recommendation should choose different advantages to achieve complementary effects. For example, if Professor A's recommendation letter states his thirst for knowledge, Professor B can choose the advantages of innovative thinking/independent thinking in his recommendation letter, while the professional advantages such as leadership/execution/communication and cooperation ability should be chosen as far as possible in the enterprise recommendation letter.
brief and to the point
The fourth pit of recommendation letter: long but not focused.
It is best to keep the recommendation letter within one page, and each paragraph should not be too long, so as to avoid using long and complicated sentences. Usually you can choose a letter as the main recommendation letter, which is longer and the others are as concise as possible.
formal
The fifth pit of recommendation letter: colloquial, private mailbox.
In addition to the language style, there are also contact information here. Be sure to use the official email address of the referee. Some mailboxes will mark emails with links sent by the school to referees as spam, so applicants should remind referees to check whether there are any school emails in the trash can. And when the applicant uploads the recommendation letter by himself, the IP must be changed.
When writing a letter of recommendation, in addition to the above five points, you should also pay attention to the following details:
1) At the beginning of the article (paragraph 1 or paragraph 2), explain the relationship between the recommender and the applicant, the chance to get to know each other, and the familiarity (the length of understanding). If it is an internship/job recommendation, the recommender should briefly introduce himself (such as company/position, etc.). If the referee is a professor and has outstanding academic achievements in related fields, you can briefly introduce him.
2) Compared with positive comments, the recommender can choose curve to save the country. Through peer comparison, the applicant is excellent. For example, a professor can say that the enthusiasm and ability of an undergraduate can be comparable to that of his graduate student. If the professor himself comes from a less well-known school, he can also briefly explain which top universities or top enterprises his former students went to, and indicate that the applicants are equal to or even better than these students, so as to reflect their development potential.
3) If the recommender writes in person, the applicant shall sort out his own relevant information and provide it to the recommender for reference. If you are writing for the applicant, you should try to think from the teacher's point of view, and the selected examples/details must be understood by the teacher through daily academic exchanges/observations. For example, some students, in order to show their efforts, said in the recommendation letter that a teacher should not be familiar with these processes, but can only reflect the students' efforts from another angle with the results.
4) Some colleges and universities will give more detailed requirements in terms of recommendation letters, for example, the requirements include three advantages+1 shortcomings, and certain skills are needed when choosing shortcomings. First of all, you can't choose some hard injuries (that is, shortcomings that can't or are difficult to correct), such as personality defects (selfishness, etc.). Secondly, you can't choose the shortcomings that affect your academic ability, such as not loving scientific research and low scientific research ability. Moreover, don't fantasize about playing Tai Chi with school, instead of boasting. For example, the applicant's biggest shortcoming is that he studies too hard and doesn't care about his health. To sum up, when talking about shortcomings, try to choose aspects that have no influence on academic ability and can be improved. For example, when applying for a cross-major, you can explain that you have not applied for systematic professional training or lack of industry experience, but you should emphasize that the applicant has realized this disadvantage and is making up for it through self-study/elective courses/internship/practice projects.