A Letter of Recommendation is a written account of a person's character. It is usually included with a job or academic application, but can be used for personal reasons as well, like as part of a Rental Application.

Generally, a Letter of Recommendation is written to showcase a person's outstanding accomplishment(s), or as proof of their competency.

A Letter of Recommendation should include relevant information about what the writer noticed about the candidate that was exceptional. For instance, if you are writing a recommendation letter for someone to use to include with their job application and you worked on a project with them, you could highlight their project management ability. For an academic Letter of Recommendation, perhaps you would want to showcase their ability to do useful and informative research.

Occasionally, a Letter of Recommendation can be written for someone as a professional or academic gesture, but if the letter is being written to use for a specific purpose (such as part of a job application, or to include in a college or university admissions application) then the content should remain relevant to that purpose.

The person who writes the Letter of Recommendation should be someone that can attest to the skills, abilities, and accomplishments of the recipient that are relevant to what the recipient is planning to use the Letter of Recommendation for.

For instance, if a student is applying to a university or college and requires a Letter of Recommendation, a former or current teacher, coach, or other academic mentor would be a good candidate for the student to ask for a recommendation from.