How to Write a Recommendation Letter
Most recommendation letters sound the same and say nothing. Here's the structure that gets the person hired or admitted.
Someone asked you to write them a recommendation. You agreed because they're a good person and a strong [employee/student/colleague]. Now you're staring at a blank document and the only sentences that come are the ones every recommendation letter has: "I am pleased to recommend..." "During their time at..." "They are a hard worker who..." These sentences are correct and useless. They tell the reader nothing.
Strong recommendation letters share a structure that's mostly invisible — they include specific evidence, calibrate against a real comparison set, and have a defensible position the reader can actually use. Below are the five components that separate a useful letter from a generic one.
Open with how you know them and for how long
First sentence, two facts: your relationship and the duration. "I supervised Maria for three years as her direct manager at [Company]." That's it. The reader needs to know whether your endorsement is from a position of real knowledge or distant acquaintance, and you need to establish credibility before opinion. Most recommendation letters skip this and open with praise; the praise lands harder when the reader knows the source's standing first.
State the headline judgment in one clear sentence
Don't bury the verdict. "She is among the strongest [analysts/students/engineers] I have worked with in my [N years] in this role." The reader is going to scan this letter — admissions officers and hiring managers read hundreds. Give them the takeaway in the first paragraph. Vague openers make the reader work to find your actual opinion; clear ones tell them what you think and give them context for the rest of the letter.
Provide one specific anecdote, not a list of qualities
Adjectives don't work. "Hardworking, intelligent, kind" reads identically to every other letter the reader has seen. One specific story does more work than a paragraph of adjectives: "When the analytics platform went down before the board meeting, she rebuilt the key dashboards from scratch in four hours and presented them as if she'd been planning to all along." The story shows the qualities; you don't have to name them. Pick the one anecdote that captures who they are and write it concretely.
Calibrate against a real comparison set
Recommendations land harder when they're explicitly comparative. "In the last decade, I have managed approximately 30 [analysts]. She is one of the top three." "Of the students I have taught in my graduate seminar, hers was the second-best thesis." The reader has no way to interpret "excellent" without a reference frame; comparisons give them one. Be honest about the frame — top three out of how many, of what kind. This is the single biggest differentiator between letters that read as supportive and letters that read as decisive.
Address the obvious counter-question, briefly
If there's something a reader might wonder about — a gap, a weakness, a transition — name it and address it. "While she is earlier in her career than typical applicants, her trajectory in the last 18 months suggests..." "She does not yet have publication history, but the work in her current draft is ready." Letters that engage one honest question come across as credible. Letters that ignore obvious questions come across as sales pitches. The acknowledgment is what makes the rest of the letter trustworthy.
Turn rough notes into a polished letter in minutes
Ghost Writer takes your bullet points, your relationship, and the role they're applying for and writes a structured letter — opener, headline, anecdote, comparison, counter-question — in your voice.