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Pastoral Recommendation Form

Music I'm Jeff Stratton and welcome to Monday productivity pointers you may not know this about me but the degree that I graduated in is in communication studies so knowing this I can ask to write a lot of letters of recommendations from friends family members and colleagues I figured that the chances are pretty good that you'll be asked to write one one day if you haven't already so I thought I'd share what I've learned about writing a good letter of recommendation now there's two really good benefits to knowing how to write one of these the first one is you won't have to stress about writing it because it can be very stressful and two you're giving your subject who you're writing the letter for the best possible chance so that they get the job or the admission or whatever you're writing the letter for there's a lot riding on your shoulders when you write a letter like this so hopefully I can show you how to make it as best as it can possibly be I'm actually going to show you two examples real letters of recommendations that I've written for people over the years to make this easy I've compartmentalized it into four important facts so knowing and remembering these four facts will make this a very easy process for you the first fact is brevity shortness when you're writing your letter of recommendation it shouldn't be longer than one page so right away there's some constraints that will make it a lot easier now fact number two you need to remember that it's a formal document in your subject who you're writing the letter for deserves you to take it very seriously so knowing the structure of how the letter needs to be written is just as important as the content then we're going to talk about that fact number three is that you need to know something first you need to know what you're writing the letter of recommendation for for example is it for a college admission or a job if it's for a job what type of job and then finally the last fact what specific examples can you give about you're subject you'll need those so knowing these things will make writing your letter extremely easy once they're all in place and in fact you can write down each of these things on a paper to get your outline then again not knowing these facts will make writing the letter next to impossible you need to know specific examples about who you're writing the letter for and you need to know why you're writing it so let's move on to the letter I've actually got it open on the screen we need to start with the structure first so always the date goes on top followed by an address block underneath it of who you're writing the letter to now if you don't know it's okay to just include a date you then need to follow it up with a recipient now because it's a formal letter instead of a comma you're going to put a colon at the end of it for example I'm addressing this to Carla Anderson from the admissions office of a university so I'm writing this letter on behalf of a student to get into this particular college her name's Carla Anderson so I'm going to write dear miss Anderson and put a colon on it in your opening paragraph you always need to start out with how you know the subject so you're going to talk about your relationship with the subject you also do need to state that it is indeed a letter of recommendation for example I started off my letter by writing I am writing on behalf of Karin arena a remarkable young woman who I've had the pleasure of watching grow over the years at volunteer agency a non-profit agency so I definitely have established right away how I know this person and how long I've known this person in the second paragraph and possibly a third if there is one remember it can be brief you need to state how quality of the subject is fitting for the role that the letter of recommendation is for you want both the subject and the reader of the letter to find your letter perfectly suited to the need use specific examples so this is why I said right in the beginning that if you have these specific examples in place if you can sit down and brainstorm those first it's going to make right the actual letter easy now you can also write comparatively why are you impressed by this person especially based on those examples in this case I decided to use the students leadership examples that's what I wanted to use is the focus for the recommendation so I gave examples about how she volunteers all the time and how she's always smiling every time she volunteers I also gave specific examples of how she exhibits a natural maturity and leadership and her friends also follow her to these events so I'm citing specific examples in the next paragraph I also cited a specific example of how she helped fill a bowling alley with volunteers for our fundraiser so those are some great qualities that she has and it helps tie in how I'm illustrating her leadership abilities finally I needed one closing paragraph on how she'll be a great fit for the organization moving on with the structure of the letter because it's a formal business letter I'm going to end with sincerely and I'm going to leave a space here so that I can put my signature in here and then I'm going to close with my name possibly address but I definitely want to put my contact information in here so that they can contact me if they need to and then I can send it off to my subject I'm going to open up another example down here this is an example where I knew what I was writing for I was writing this letter of recommendation so somebody could get a job however I didn't know the exact name so I included the date but I left the address out and the recipient I set it to to whom it may concern now notice that I still put the colon in here again in the opening paragraph I say I'm writing a letter recommendation and I describe how I know the subject now in this letter I decided to focus specific examples of how wonderful her children are and how that's a direct response to how great of a person she is so gave specific examples of how great her children are such as having her sense of humor and what a family-oriented lifestyle she is so there are specific examples and finally a brief closing sentence again I put this sincerely and my contact information and leave enough space so that I can sign it there's one more thing that I absolutely need to mention here it's perfectly okay to decline writing a letter of recommendation especially if you know you can't give one it could be a time justification because it does take some time to sit down and do this and you may not have it but also you may not feel like you can give somebody a good recommendation that's okay there's nothing wrong with this don't ever ruin your integrity and that doesn't help anybody especially you so it's just as important to know how to decline writing a letter as it is to write one so don't ever be afraid to simply say I'm sorry but I don't feel like I have enough information or a time commitment to be able to properly give a letter to you any justice so knowing that if you ever get asked to write a letter of recommendation hopefully you can remember these important facts outline it and then writing your letter will be a breeze