For Students
Asking for letters of recommendation can be intimidating to some students, but if you go into it with the right attitude and having prepared thoroughly, you should find that it is not so difficult after all. Here are some helpful hints for approaching people about writing your letters.

• Seek out the people who really know you well. Think outside the box of tenured professors at the university. Not that those are bad, but they may not be the people who are most familiar with the you and your work. The letter writers depth of knowledge about you is more important than their ranking.
• If the letter is coming from someone outside an academic setting, it would be a good idea to acquaint the person with the scholarship or fellowship program and to the general style of letters of recommendation.
• Ask early! The earlier you approach someone to write for you, the easier it will be for them to plan their time. In general, asking for a letter in less than three weeks is considered inconsiderate.
• Give the letter writers a deadline of about a week earlier than it is actually due. Often faculty will become overwhelmed with the number of letters they have to write, in addition to the other work they have to do, and will be a bit tardy in getting letters in to the Fellowships office. If you give them an earlier deadline, any mishaps along the way will not leave you out of the running.
• Prepare a packet to make their lives easier. The more information you can give your letter writers, the better. Try putting together a packet with the following: a brief description of the fellowship(s) you are applying for, including criteria for selection; a current resume; a list of personal data (extra-curricular activities, or organizations) which may not appear on your resume; a rough draft of your application or project proposal; helpful reminders of great things you did in their class/organization/internship.
• About a week or two before the recommendation is due, contact them again to find out if they need any more information or update them on any changes you may have made to your proposal. (This also works as a friendly reminder that the deadline is approaching.)

For Faculty
Letters of Recommendation: What selection panel members like to see, and what leaves them cold

What helps:
• Point to some specific examples of what the candidate has done -- gave a terrific presentation, was a dedicated employee who figured out new business practices -- look for results.

• Provide information about the student's strengths in an interview. Letters should assist the committee in interviewing a student.

• Be specific. If the student wrote a brilliant paper on quarks, mention the title and why it stood out.

•Make the case for why this person would be a strong Truman (Rhodes, etc.) candidate. The letter should avoid the redundant information about GPA, class standing, etc. (unless there's something about it not captured in the numbers). Knowing what's unusual about the student (in areas relevant to the scholarship) is really critical.

• Give the reader some context of how the person knows the candidate--school, civic, work, etc.---and for what period of time that the person has been known.

• Provide specific dates, times and location of the event/activity being reviewed.

• Put the student in perspective. Percentages sometimes help; "top 10% of students in my 50 years of teaching" when true is useful.

• Give serious indication that you know the candidate personally (when possible). For example, incidents or actions that are unique to your relationship are more credible, than writing about things that are obviously on the resume and can be repeated without verification. Comments about character from personal knowledge are also quite credible. That means that the referring official is somewhat going out on a limb, and that means a lot.

What hurts:

• Do not write three boilerplate paragraphs about the your course and teaching style. The committee does not particularly care how difficult you feel your class is. The letter should be about the student. Include information about the class only when it helps the reader interpret the student's activities or academic record, i.e. provides relevant context.

• Avoid letters that only tell what grade was given in what course. They are useless. Letter-writers should provide substantial information about classroom experiences.

• The fact that a student did the reading for the class should not be included in the recommendation. It should simply be expected and implies that other students did not do the reading (reflecting badly on the institution).

• Be honest, but cautious about criticism. Committees take it seriously. Be fair to both the candidate and to the reader.

• Do not include general platitudes that the scholar is a great person and is a candidate for sainthood.

• Avoid citing experiences that happened quite a few years ago -- the more recent the better.

Note: it is a real downer if the person writing the letter mentions that they only briefly met the candidate but the staff said nice things.

Further Resources:
Writing Effective Letters of Recommendation for Rhodes, Truman... and Beyond
Advice about letters from a former Truman Scholarship panelist