Familiarize yourself with the requirements. Some schools require a specific formatting, such as paper size, indentation, and fonts. Others have a pre-determined structure with specific questions that you should answer. An applicant should provide this information, but it is always helpful to double check requirements before you begin writing.
Review the applicant's skills and strengths. Knowing the applicant will help you personalize your letter. Often referees are not familiar with all aspect of the applicant's academic or professional life. Therefore, it is helpful to learn about the applicant's past. You can use relevant information to highlight how the applicant will fit into the school and what skills he will bring to the specific academic program.
Develop a formal format. A formal letterhead will impact the committee and help to establish your credibility. If you do not have your own letterhead, be sure to use a business letter format, including your address, the address of the school, the addressee and the name of the student.
Introduce yourself and your relationship to the applicant. This should be your first paragraph as it also helps to establish credibility. Start by explaining where you work, what your title is, and what your duties include. Once you have provided details about yourself, provide information about your relationship to the student, including how you know the student and how long you have known the student.
Explain the applicant's qualifications. The most important thing to remember is that the application is for a school. Therefore, the committee will be interested in knowing how you would rank the applicant's academic performance and potential. This should be a single paragraph and should follow the introduction.
Identify specific skills and experience that will help the applicant succeed in the academic program. These should be tangible items, written in clear and concise language. If they excel at writing, do not simply write "Applicant is a great writer". Provide details that illustrate how you know this. For example, "Applicant's writing skills are far beyond those of her peers, as exhibited in her award-winning essay on the political applications for social media."
Describe the applicant's personality. Applications are usually a collection of bare facts on a paper. The committee will want to get to know the applicant and often will need to do so without the help of an interview. Provide a character sketch of the applicant, including details such as creativity levels, temperament and intelligence level. Your goal is to help the committee distinguish the applicant from others, so be sure to rank the student's pertinent characteristics. For example, you could write "out of the 50 students that participated in the seminar, applicant's intellectual capability was easily within the top 1%."
Summarize your position. In your conclusion you should indicate how qualified you think the applicant is for entrance into the school, including the degree to which you would recommend the student. Often, a committee will scan the letter but pay particular attention to this section. Be sure to use clear language such as "strongly recommend" or "highly recommend."