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I asked a professor I have been working for about a year to write a recommendation letter for graduate school. She agreed but says she usually ask students to write for themselves and she will do some editions on it.

I was supposed to ask her for a template at that time... And now I have no idea how to draft one for myself. Anybody has any advice?

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marked as duplicate by scaaahu, user3209815, Coder, RoboKaren, Pete L. Clark Aug 22 '17 at 17:53

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

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    @scaaahu: I don't think this is a duplicate. The other question asks whether or when it is acceptable. This question asks how to do it. – O. R. Mapper Aug 22 '17 at 10:13
  • It would be helpful to tag this question with your country, and - even more importantly - with the intended country of destination for the letter of recommendation. As outlined in a great answer by Massimo Ortolano, typical LoRs, and thereby, expectations to what an LoR should contain, vary considerably around the world. – O. R. Mapper Aug 22 '17 at 10:22
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    @O.R.Mapper Actually, I was going to use Points to remember when having to write recommendation letter yourself as a duplicate. I don't want to retract the close vote because we already have many questions and answers (you pointed out one of them) about writing rec letters yourself. – scaaahu Aug 22 '17 at 11:04
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Professors often do not have time to write a recommendation letter. Sometimes, they do not know the student well so they ask the students to write a recommendation letter for them. However, universities are aware of this form of "Ghost writing" and they can recognize ghost writing pretty easily. I would suggest to read some recommendation letter online and then try to write one for yourself.

If you are working with your professor for some time, try to write about the project in the recommendation letter. Try to write what you are doing in the project and what is your contribution in the project. Also, try to discuss your differences with other project members (if you have any). If you have taken any course with the professor, then try to discuss the course's interaction from the professor's perspective. If you won any awards, you can also discuss that from the professor's prospective. I guess the best idea is to read about some recommendation letter and then try to write your own.

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    Could you qualify your answer with some location where the guidelines you point out would apply? As outlined by this answer, for instance, a European LoR recipient may just expect to be told that "that you had worked with this person and that they are not that bad", rather than an elaborate discussion of the project, the precise contribution, and the differences with other project members. Different expectations may exist in yet other parts of the world. – O. R. Mapper Aug 22 '17 at 10:26

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