由于種種原因，大部分的中國申請者都是自己以推薦人的口氣用英文把推薦信寫好，然后再請推薦人簽字。在國外也會有這種情況，尤其是在推薦人很忙的時候。這種情況下，最好先用漢語打個草稿讓推薦人過目，如果推薦人同意再精雕細琢成英語推薦信。對于中國學生來說，自己寫推薦信可能比自述信還難。一是要用三種不同的口吻推薦自己，可能很不自然，不知道怎么說，有的可能還很不好意思；二是，寫完自述信，很多人已經江郎才盡了，實在寫不成什么新意了。要解決這些難題，為自己寫出出色的推薦信，你可以和同學合作，互相修改和潤色，也可以找專門的咨詢機構幫你潤色。無論如何，一定要注意以下幾個原則：

       1、客觀評價自己的成就，避免贊美過度。推薦信應該表明推薦人對于申請者的動機有一定了解，并能解釋申請者進一步深造的需要。很多推薦信把申請者吹成了一個甚至比教授還牛的專家，就失去了推薦信的意義，既然已經是大師級人物了，還去留學深造干嗎？

       2、插入具體實例，避免堆砌泛泛的贊美之詞。推薦信中對于申請者的重要素質和能力要有實例的支持。作為你的教授，總是可以論述你在幫他做的項目中的責任和表現，而作為你的老板，怎么會說不出你的某一項具體成就呢？就像寫自述信時一樣，拿出一張紙，一邊寫出自己的品質、優點，一邊注明至少一個實例。切記：推薦不是吹捧，所以推薦信的“裝扮”要適度，不能太花哨，太渲染。要盡量用平實可信的語言，增加細節性的例證說明。

       3、轉換語言風格和思維角度，增加推薦可信度。自己給自己寫推薦信不僅僅是擺事實的問題，還有一個口吻、行文問題。首先是內容上，除了補充自己自述中所沒有的方面外，對于一些重要的成就和優點進行論述時，要從推薦人的角度考慮，切勿簡單重復自述信或簡歷中的內容；其次是語言風格上，用詞上要注意變換，不要出現你自述信中常用的習語等，最后在推薦信用的紙張、信封、字體、字號、段落等方面盡量避免雷同。

       4、絕對避免語法、拼寫或明顯的用詞錯誤。

       下面是一篇較好的推薦信，請大家體會一下這些原則的運用。

In capacity as Professor of Mathematics at Fudan University, I'm writing to recommend Mr. Wang Ges into your PhD program in Computer Science. I have known Mr. Wang since his sophomore year of collegeand have acted as his thesis advisor and mentor. In my experience, he is a gifted and diligent student and an admirably hard worker.

Wang is an impressive student because he has been forced to overcome the significant challenge of a serious illness during his freshman year. When I first met Wang in my Discrete Math class, he did not appear to be anything special to me. While his exam scores were good, they were not as high as I would now expect of him. What I didn't know then was that due to his illness, Wang was attempting to take all of the difficult early mathematics courses at one time, including Discrete Mathematics, Advanced Mathematics, Linear Algebra and Possibilities. While most students found preparing for just one set of these exams difficult, Wang was overwhelmed by four of them. But in the end, he achieved an impressive score on the final exam, which made me conscious of his unusual determination he demonstrates when confronting difficult challenges.

Mr. Wang and I have often talked about a variety of mathematics and computer science concepts and problems. During these discussions, I always found him to be delightfully intelligent. Not only does he quickly understand the concepts and problems presented to him, he is able to analyze these problems and present solutions. But perhaps most important is that Wang's thinking is intensely rigorous. When looking at any question, he carefully scrutinizes it and if he finds any uncertain issues, he clears them up immediately. I believe this kind of thought is essential to become an excellent computer programmer.

Serving as his thesis advisor, I had a first-hand opportunity to observe the way in which Wang's mind works. In his senor thesis, Mr. Wang mainly discussed two challenging questions in regards to "ANN". In our books in China, knowledge of ANN and its uses are very rare. Few people in China have studied this topic and consequently, the materials that are available on ANN are limited. Working on this difficult projectnot only did Mr. Wang rise to the challenge, but he went above and beyond the call of duty to analyze his secondary sources and test them for accuracy in practice. In this way, he found mistakes in the book that we use. His diligence and hard work made me extremely proud of him.

Mr. Wang is an intelligent, motivated and industrious individual. Teaching and advising him has been a delightful pleasure. I know that if given the chance to study abroad in America, he will arm himself to become a great programmer he dreams of being. He has the intelligence and background to achieve these goals - now all he needs is the opportunity. I ask that you look upon his application favorably and grant him a chance to study in your university.

       （來源：全球教育網）