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If you are asked to write a letter that recommends someone, so it is called the personal reference letter. Usually, a personal reference letter is required for a job application, scholarship or other things related to an organization. Later, this letter will influence a decision whether someone will be accepted or not. Therefore, writing this letter should be formal and written in a correct manner.
What Is Personal Reference Letter?
The personal reference letter is also called a letter of recommendation which is used as a testimony or a person that contains the skill, character and also achievement.
When To Use The Recommendation Letter?
A reference letter is used in many kinds of situations, which are as follow:
- When someone is applying for a job, the letter is used as a recommendation of skill, achievement, and character. Later, the company uses this as one of the sources to determine someone if she/he is accepted.
- For someone who gets a job offer will need to attach the reference letter before signing the contract.
- For the academic purpose, the letter of reference functions as the support of an application. Besides, this is also used as the source of considering whether someone is eligible as a candidate for a scholarship.
- This letter is also beneficial to testify the financial status. For example for someone who is seeking for a landlord.
Who Can Give The Recommendation Letter?
A letter of reference should be written based on the truth. This is why someone who is rightful to write it is the one who knows the candidate very much. You cannot ask a lecturer to write you a personal reference letter if you barely attend his class. Besides, there are crucial things you should adhere regarding with the letter to avoid the legal problem in the future:
- The one who is the rightful person to write a recommendation letter is the one who the candidates know well. This can be close friends, or someone who notice the record well in the organization.
- Someone who can draft a meaningful recommendation letter is the one who works with the candidate for a long time because he/she can give meaningful and reliable information including the skill, capability, and achievement. This is also possible if this person writes a weakness which shows the candidate’s struggle to fix it.
- The rule of making the recommendation letter is with an honesty yet doing it in a positive way. If you ever had feuds with the candidate, then you might not be the most rightful person who can write it because your assumption might be very biased and subjective.
How To Write A Proper Personal Reference Letter?
It is important to avoid writing the weakness of a candidate, informal tone, or even including a personal information about the candidate. Writing personal information is also inappropriate. Besides, avoid touching political stance, race, religion, nationality, marital status as well as the health condition because it is so irrelevant. The last is be mindful with your words moreover the sloppy writing, typos and other mistakes that can make you look unprofessional.
