Note: I will be using “candidate” to refer to the person who the reference letter is about, “you” to refer to the person writing the reference letter, and “recipient” to refer to the person receiving the letter. I’ll emphasise here, though, that reference letters are not only for job or academic “candidates”, it’s just a handy term to use to keep this article straightforward!

What is a reference letter and when are they used?

A reference letter is usually written to testify to a person or (occasionally) a company’s skills, character and/or achievements. Sometimes a reference letter is known as a “recommendation letter”. It is a formal document, and should be typed and written in a serious and business-like style.

Reference letters are used in a wide variety of situations; there is no definitive list that covers all possible scenarios. The most common examples are:

• When a candidate applies for a job, they may need a reference to support their application.
• If an interviewee is given a job offer, they may need to supply a reference letter before the contract can be signed.
• A student applying for an academic course often requires a reference letter to support their application.
• A student applying for funding will often need to supply reference letters.
• Companies may use reference letters as testimonies to their trustworthiness and ability to carry out a job well.
• Prospective tenants may need to provide their landlord with a reference letter, testifying to their good financial status. (This could be from a prior landlord or from a current employer.)

Who should write a reference letter?

If you are approached and asked to write a reference letter for a job candidate, a student or a company, consider whether you can legitimately do so. A reference letter is a formal document, and it is crucial that you do not lie or fudge the truth in it, or there could be legal repercussions. If someone wants a reference letter from you:

• The candidate should be someone you know reasonably well. For example, you cannot provide any authoritative comment on the academic ability of a student who’s only been attending your lectures for a week.
• You should know the candidate in a capacity which gives you the ability to write a meaningful reference. For example, if you have worked with the person, it would be appropriate for you to write a reference letter to a prospective employer for them.
• You should be able to provide an honest and positive reference. If you truly feel that the candidate has no good qualities for you to emphasis, or if you have had a personality clash with them in the past, you should tell them to seek a reference letter from someone else.

What goes into a reference letter?

The exact structure of a reference letter will differ slightly depending on the type of reference it is, but this is a good basic outline:

1. Start using the business letter format: put the recipient’s name and address, if known, and address them as “Dear [name]”. If the recipient is currently unknown (this would be likely on an academic application, for instance), then use “Dear Sir/Madam” or “To whom it may concern”.
2. It is often helpful to introduce yourself in the first couple of lines of your letter. The recipient will not need your life history: just give a brief sentence or two explaining your position and your relationship to the candidate.
3. Your next paragraph should confirm any facts which you know the candidate will be supplying along with your letter. For example, if you are writing a reference for a job applicant, some or all of these details may be appropriate:
   • The person’s job title, and role within the company.
   • The person’s leaving salary when they were last employed by you (or your organisation).
   • The dates which the person was employed from and until.

   If you are writing a reference letter for an academic course, you will need to confirm the person’s academic grades.

4. In your third paragraph, you should provide your judgement upon the candidate’s skills and qualities. It is often appropriate to state that you would gladly re-employ them, or that their contributions to your college class were highly valued. Single out any exceptional qualities that the candidate has – perhaps their drive and enthusiasm, their attention to detail, or their ability to lead.
5. Where possible, use your fourth paragraph to give a couple of concrete examples of times when the candidate excelled. (You may want to ask the candidate to tell you about any extra-curricular projects they’ve been involved in, or invite them to highlight anything they’d particularly like you to include in the reference letter.)
6. Close your letter on a positive note, and if you are willing to receive further correspondence about the candidate’s application, make this clear. Include your contact details too.
7. As with any business letter, you should end appropriately; “Yours sincerely” when you are writing to a named recipient, and “Yours faithfully” when you do not know who will be receiving the letter.

Things to avoid

Make sure that you avoid:

• Mentioning any weaknesses the candidate has.
• Saying anything that could be construed as libel.
• Writing in an informal manner: keep the letter business-like. Jokes, slang and casual language are not appropriate and may harm the candidate’s chances.
• Including personal information not relevant to the application. Mentioning the candidate’s race, political stance, religion, nationality, marital status, age or health is usually inappropriate.
• Spelling mistakes, sloppy writing or typos: this letter is hugely important to the candidate, and you should take care to make it look professional.

Reference Letter Examples

There are a number of good templates for reference letters available on Business Balls. I’ve included one below, which would be appropriate for a general-purpose reference – if you were writing a reference in your capacity as the candidate’s former employer, you would need to include more specific details:

Date

To whom it may concern

I confirm that I have known (name) for (number) years.

(State relationship – social, business, working together in some other capacity, club, activity, project, etc.)

At all times I have found (name/him/her) to be (state characteristics – eg, dependable, reliable, hard-working, conscientious, honest, peace-loving, courteous, etc – to be as helpful as possible think about what the reader will most prefer to see, in terms of satisfying concerns, or seeing evidence of relevant required skills or characteristics).

I’m happy to provide further information if required. (optional)

Yours faithfully, etc.

You can find examples of full reference letters on About.com’s “job searching” section. They list letters appropriate for a variety of different situations: here’s one from a previous employer in support of a job candidate:

To Whom it May Concern:

I highly recommend Jane Doe as a candidate for employment. Jane was employed by Company Name as an Administrative Assistant from 2002 – 2005. Jane was responsible for office support including word processing, scheduling appointments and creating brochures, newsletters, and other office literature.

Jane has excellent communication skills. In addition, she is extremely organized, reliable and computer literate. Jane can work independently and is able to follow through to ensure that the job gets done. She is flexible and willing to work on any project that is assigned to her. Jane was quick to volunteer to assist in other areas of company operations, as well.

Jane would be a tremendous asset for your company and has my highest recommendation. If you have any further questions with regard to her background or qualifications, please do not hesitate to call me.

Sincerely,

John Smith
Title
Company
Address
Phone
Email

If you are still unsure what best to include in the reference letter, imagine yourself in the position of the candidate’s prospective employer, or of the panel reading his/her academic application. What information would they need to know? What qualities would they like their candidates to have? Obviously, you should never lie or mislead in a reference letter, but you should try to focus on areas which will give the recipient the most useful information possible about the candidate.

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Would you be so kind as to tell me what is the correct way to write down an address when the building has no number, I think there is an abbreviation form.

If any of you readers outside the U.S. know of an abbreviation that designates a building without a street number, please tell us in the comments.

In the United States, new construction requires the existence of a street number before a building is built. As for older buildings, according to the person I talked to at the USPS 800 number, all buildings in towns have street numbers. Rural addresses may make use of the abbreviation RR:

D.Q. Jones
RR 5 Box 19
Molesville TX 77293

Many buildings have both names and street addresses. If a building is well-known in the town where it is, the name can serve in lieu of a numbered address, as long as the town and state are included. For example, an envelope addressed to someone at the Empire State Building, New York, N.Y. would probably reach its destination without the address 350 5th Ave.

USPS address-reading machinery reads addresses from the bottom up:

4…………D. Q. Jones
3………..12233 Jefferson Ave Apt 1
2………. Newport News, VA 23602
1…………USA

According to the official USPS guidelines, designations such as Apt (apartment), Dept (department), and Ste (suite) go on the same line as the street address:

234 Hilltop Dr Apt 504
Greenwich PA 23853

NOT
234 Hilltop Dr
Apt 504
Greenwich PA 23853

In the event that the space available for the address is not large enough for Apt to be written out, the symbol # can be used in its place:

234 Hilltop Dr #504
Greenwich PA 23853

It a street address is especially long, some of the vowels may be omitted.
For example, 23 Espendhade-Dogwood Terrace could be shortened to:

23 Espnshd-Dgwd Ter.

USPS abbreviations for street suffixes

USPS abbreviations for “secondary unit designators” (ex. Apt.)

This one’s a pdf: USPS guidelines regarding acceptable and unacceptable address sequence

Is it permissible to list Enclosures at the top of a letter right after Subject and/or References or should they always be listed at the bottom of the letter after your closing?

I suppose that anything is “permissible,” but some things are not advisable. Shaking up the conventional order of a business letter is not a good idea.

People opening a business letter expect it to be arranged in the following conventional order:

1. writer’s return address
2. date the letter is being written
3. name, title, and address of recipient
4. salutation (with colon)
5. a RE or subject line if desired (some guides place the subject line above the salutation)
6. body of the letter
7. closing and signature
8. notice of enclosure

Busy people appreciate anything that makes their work easier. Observing conventional order in a business letter is one of those things.

Here are some related articles:
Dear Sir and other business conventions
The perils of writing to someone you don’t know

Yours faithfully (to unknown person on business)
Yours truly (to slight acquaintance)
Yours very truly (ceremonious but cordial)
Yours sincerely (in invitations and friendly but not intimate letters)

With slight variations between British and American usage, these forms are still in use.

If you don’t know the name of the recipient…

Yours faithfully is British usage. It is used when the recipient is not addressed by name, as in a letter with a “Dear Sir” salutation. I have never seen it in correspondence between Americans. That’s not to say it won’t catch on. I’ve come across letter-writing guides on the web that imply that it is standard American usage.

Yours truly is the American equivalent of “yours faithfully” that I was taught by my American business teachers. When I begin a letter “Dear Sir,” I close it with “Yours truly.”

When you do know the name of the recipient…

Yours sincerely is also British. Americans tend to reverse the order and write Sincerely yours.

When I worked in England, I was told that to write Sincerely without the Yours was very bad form. Now, of course, Sincerely is a common and acceptable close for American business letters.

Which words to capitalize…

Only the first word is capitalized:

Yours faithfully,
Yours sincerely,
Sincerely yours,

Is it just me, or does the “Dear” seem a little awkward when starting a business letter to someone whom you have never met or communicated [with]? If I have to call someone “Mr.” or something similar, is this person really dear to me?

I had to laugh because I had a similar feeling the first time I had to type a letter signed Yours faithfully in England. Wow, I thought, what a devoted way to sign a business letter! At the time I was very young and literal-minded. (you can read more here about the business letter format).

Dear Sir, Yours sincerely, Yours faithfully, and all such polite expressions are conventions, agreed-upon forms that serve a conventional purpose. They’re not intended to be taken literally.

Language is itself a convention. For example, the object that English speakers call a pencil is by French speakers called a crayon. For American English speakers a “crayon” is “a stick of colored wax composition used for drawing and coloring.”

When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

We can and do make the same words mean different things. It’s all a matter of context.

The “dear” in Dear Sir, does not mean the same as the “dear” that I use to address my grandchild. The one is a convention; the other is an endearment.

The complete conversation between Alice and Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass may be read here.