Writing a letter of recommendation...

[SW in IL]

I've been asked to write a letter of recommendation for a friend's son who is applying to a small liberal arts college. I'm being asked to do this in the capacity of a family friend (for many years) and a fellow homeschooling parent.

Any ideas what I should include in the letter? I'm making lots of notes but I'm not sure if I should be speaking about him as far as his academic potential or if I should just be speaking about his personality and such.

Any thoughts? Any websites with good, somewhat homeschooling-related, sample letters that I could use as a springboard?

Thanks,
Sue

[In The Great White North]

Very helpful link:
http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/schools/writing_evaluations/index.shtml

from this thread:


http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99814&highlight=letter+rec&page=2

[Kareni]

Sue,

When I was writing my daughter's counselor letter for college applications, one thing I found helpful was to look at a list of character traits and decide which of those best described my daughter. (I had my husband do this, too.) Once I had decided which traits to discuss, I thought of experiences/situations that best showed those traits and wrote about those.

I'd be happy to share my counselor letter with you as well as the list of general character traits that I put together. (I'd be happy to share with anyone who sends me a personal message with her/his email address.)

Regards,
Kareni

[Julie in MN]

Very helpful link:
http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/schools/writing_evaluations/index.shtml

Good link, thanks! I've written letters for employers but not for colleges, so this was very interesting!

Julie

[Kareni]

Sue,

Emails have been sent.

Regards,
Kareni