5 Easy Steps to a Perfect Letter of Personal Reference

A letter of personal reference  is written for many reasons, but most notably for seeking employment. And an effective one can mean the difference between getting the job, or not. 

However, if you don’t write a reference letter often (who does?) chances of coming up with the right words in the right order are getting the right words in the right order can be a daunting task.  

If this describes you have a couple of choices.  You can either use a reference letter sample as a guide to writing your own, or you can use the 5 Step process that I use.  With it I can write a reference letter in 10-15 minutes.

5 Steps for Writing an Effective Personal Reference Letter

Step One. Begin by asking someone you know well to write a letter for you. Because a close, personal friend or professional associate will know you well enough to describe your strengths, whereas someone who doesn’t know you well won’t know nearly as much about you. 

Step Two. Write objectively. Write about the positive traits and attributes of the subject, but leave out the negative ones.  However, keep it real. Don’t exaggerate, as the accolades may appear to be false in the eyes of the receiver. 

Step Three. Be brief and to the point. Don’t be wordy. Instead, make your points in as few words as possible.  Improve your chances of your personal reference letter being read by making sure that things are clearly stated, concise and to the point.  

Step Four. Include contact information at the end of the letter.  Doing so will make it easy for the reader/ recipient to contact you. Sometimes it might be to clarify something you wrote, while other times it might simply be to talk to the person who wrote the letter to get more information.    

Step Five.  Finally, you can always start a letter of personal reference by looking for free templates and sample letters, like those found here at by-the-letter.com .  

Summarily, the whole process of writing a letter of personal reference can be done in a matter of minutes from start to finish with this five step process, or reference letter sample.