由于种种原因，大部分的中国申请者都是自己以推荐人的口气用英文把推荐信写好，然后再请推荐人签字。在国外也会有这种情况，尤其是在推荐人很忙的时候。这种情况下，最好先用汉语打个草稿让推荐人过目，如果推荐人同意再精雕细琢成英语推荐信。对于中国学生来说，自己写推荐信可能比自述信还难。一是要用三种不同的口吻推荐自己，可能很不自然，不知道怎么说，有的可能还很不好意思；二是，写完自述信，很多人已经江郎才尽了，实在写不成什么新意了。要解决这些难题，为自己写出出色的推荐信，你可以和同学合作，互相修改和润色，也可以找专门的咨询机构帮你润色。无论如何，一定要注意以下几个原则：

       1、客观评价自己的成就，避免赞美过度。推荐信应该表明推荐人对于申请者的动机有一定了解，并能解释申请者进一步深造的需要。很多推荐信把申请者吹成了一个甚至比教授还牛的专家，就失去了推荐信的意义，既然已经是大师级人物了，还去留学深造干吗？

       2、插入具体实例，避免堆砌泛泛的赞美之词。推荐信中对于申请者的重要素质和能力要有实例的支持。作为你的教授，总是可以论述你在帮他做的项目中的责任和表现，而作为你的老板，怎么会说不出你的某一项具体成就呢？就像写自述信时一样，拿出一张纸，一边写出自己的品质、优点，一边注明至少一个实例。切记：推荐不是吹捧，所以推荐信的“装扮”要适度，不能太花哨，太渲染。要尽量用平实可信的语言，增加细节性的例证说明。

       3、转换语言风格和思维角度，增加推荐可信度。自己给自己写推荐信不仅仅是摆事实的问题，还有一个口吻、行文问题。首先是内容上，除了补充自己自述中所没有的方面外，对于一些重要的成就和优点进行论述时，要从推荐人的角度考虑，切勿简单重复自述信或简历中的内容；其次是语言风格上，用词上要注意变换，不要出现你自述信中常用的习语等，最后在推荐信用的纸张、信封、字体、字号、段落等方面尽量避免雷同。

       4、绝对避免语法、拼写或明显的用词错误。

       下面是一篇较好的推荐信，请大家体会一下这些原则的运用。

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.

       （来源：全球教育网）