Applications
LOR format: what a recommendation letter should contain
In short
A letter of recommendation runs one page in five parts: how the referee knows you and for how long, one concrete episode they personally witnessed, a comparative placement against students they have taught, an honest limitation, and an unhedged recommendation. Three letters should cover three different vantage points, supervisor, instructor, manager, because three letters praising the same qualities are read as one.
Committees read two or three letters per applicant and are looking for triangulation: three people who saw different things, agreeing. (If you are still deciding who to ask, [how to email a potential supervisor](/blog/emailing-a-potential-supervisor) covers the approach.) What they get instead, very often, is three letters that praise the same three qualities in the same order, because one person wrote all of them.
The five parts
The shape is stable across disciplines and countries, and it fits on one page.
- Opening: who the referee is, how they know you, in what capacity, and for how long
- Evidence: one episode described at the level of detail only a witness could have
- Placement: where you sit among students they have taught, where they will commit to one
- Limitation: an honest reservation, framed as assessment rather than as a flaw
- Recommendation: what they are recommending, stated without hedging
Why the limitation matters
A letter with no reservation in it reads as a favour rather than an assessment, and experienced readers discount it accordingly. A single honest sentence; that you were slow to ask for help, that your writing needed work at the start of the project: makes everything else in the letter more credible.
This is the part applicants drafting their own letters almost always remove, and it is the part that was doing the work.
Three letters, three vantage points
A thesis supervisor speaks to research capacity and how you handle being wrong. A course instructor speaks to performance against a cohort they can size you against. A manager speaks to what you are like when the work is not graded.
If all three of your referees taught you the same subject in the same year, the set is weaker than two well-chosen letters would have been.
When your referee asks you to draft it
This is standard practice in most of India and is not, in itself, a problem: the referee reads, edits and signs, and every claim is one they can verify. What makes it a problem is a letter the named referee has never seen, or one claiming knowledge they could not have.
Draft from evidence, hand them a one-page sheet listing every factual claim and where it came from, and let them change whatever they want. It takes them four minutes and nobody signs a sentence they cannot stand behind.
Formatting
Institutional letterhead where the referee has it, their full name, designation, department and institutional email, the date, and a signature. Most portals email the referee a link and take the letter as an upload or a form; a few still accept a signed and sealed physical copy.
Check early whether the portal requires an institutional email address. Faculty at several affiliated colleges in India have only personal addresses, and some universities reject those.
Related questions
How long should a letter of recommendation be?
One page, or roughly 400 to 600 words. Longer letters are not read more carefully, and a two-page letter with one concrete example in it is weaker than a one-page letter with two.
Can I write my own LOR?
You can draft it if your referee has asked you to, which is common. They must read, edit and sign it, and every claim must be something they can verify. Submitting a letter a named referee has not seen is misrepresentation, not a shortcut.
How many LORs do I need?
Two for most taught master's programmes, three for US graduate programmes and most PhD applications. Send exactly what the programme asks for; an extra letter is not a bonus.