Dear Sir:

It is my pleasure to recommend Mr. Fu-ping Wang for his application to graduate studies in your school.

Mr. Wang has been my research assistant of the National Science Council''s project "The United States and the United Nations'' Financial Crisis: The Role of U.S. Congress" since September 1997. His major responsibilities include information collecting, analyzing and translating. He is an enthusiastic and progressive young man with extremely high potentiality. Mr. Wang is not only quick at learning and good at solving difficult problems, but also with a logical mind that enables him to effectively analyze difficulties. All the work handed to him was completed satisfactorily. Actually, he is so reliable that I assign him with heavy responsibilities. With his help, I have been able to spend more time in writing the research paper. I really consider myself very fortunate to have such a capable assistant.

I am certain his diligence, coupled with a good competence and pleasant personality, will assure him of academic achievements in his future academic pursuits. I strongly recommend his admission without any reservation.

Sincerely yours,

Chung Wei-kuo
Research Fellow and Professor
The Institute of European and American Studies

推薦信分析：

您覺得這封推薦信怎樣呢？Dr. S認為，如果這是一封為秘書介紹新工作的推薦信，那還可以接受；不過對於對於申請研究所來講，就似乎不太夠力了。首先，這封推薦信犯的一個大忌就是不夠明確。

從信中我們只看到推薦人很努力地用了一大堆形容詞，試著告訴入學評審委員，這個申請人很「聰明」、「很熱心」、「很有潛力」、「很有分析能力」云云，相關的例證卻付之厥如；接著，這封信又未能指出這個申請者這些特質與將來的研究領域有何相關，只說在這個申請人的幫助下，他可以專心在研究工作上，言下之意似乎就是告訴對方這個申請者是一個很好的秘書，而非一個有前景的研究生。

其實，只要多用一點心思，換個觀察角度，單純、瑣碎的助理工作一樣也可以表現出這名申請者在與研究所有關方面的能力。比方說，推薦人不妨強調他之所以雇用這個人為研究助理，是因為這個助理以前曾做過與他目前的研究領域相關的怎樣的報告，表現出申請者在這個研究領域已具備的基礎知識或是研究潛力。又以資料搜集的工作為例，可以強調這個這個申請者如何善用某些方法，將資料作有系統的分析整理等。