Personal recommendations are an important request and require special attention to make them suitable. If you’ve been asked to write a personal letter of recommendation for a friend, you may have ...

A character reference letter can make or break an applicant’s chances. Here’s how to write a great one. A character reference letter can make or break an applicant’s chances Before the days of ...

Reference letters come in many different shapes and forms, so don’t think that one size fits all. I’ve written in the past about how to request reference letters in different situations, be it from ...

If you are in any leadership position, you will likely have to write a letter of recommendation for an employee, coworker, student or intern. Being asked to write a letter of recommendation means the ...

Undergraduates need them for graduate-school applications; PhD students and postdocs use them to apply for fellowships and jobs; senior scientists often have to have them to apply for awards and ...

Shortly after becoming a full professor, I asked a colleague who had held that rank for years to name the greatest challenge she had faced in this ultimate chapter of faculty life. Her instant reply: ...

Letters of recommendation are a standard part of many employment and educational applications. Applicants naturally choose people to write letters of recommendation who are likely to give them a good ...

In selective college admission, students and parents are often looking for that one thing that will make the applicant stand out in a competitive pool. They are convinced that there is a silver bullet ...

Johnny C. Taylor Jr. tackles your human resources questions as part of a series for USA TODAY. Taylor is president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest HR ...

There are many ways to show personality in an application: your essay, an interview, your extracurricular activities and letters of recommendation. The only letter required for your application is ...