In the professional world, harried supervisors and busy firm principals will often ask departing interns or staff to draft their own letters of recommendation. While it may seem a daunting task to balance highlighting one's skills, interests, and experience with an even and professional tone, I have discovered a great handbook which included this basic template.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am an architect, [ TITLE OF SUPERVISOR ], and recent head of [ NAME OF OFFICE ], one of the most prolific and highly awarded firms in the region. We are well known for our progressive design philosophy and commitment to sustainability.

Ms.[YOUR NAME] came to our [LOCATION] office as an intern six months ago. Her resume indicated that she had some prior professional experience in architecture. She neglected to include her experience as an artist and poet.

Ms. [YOUR NAME] was initially placed as an assistant coffeeman for a toilet partition design team, but she was brought to my attention by the head of the team as having capabilities which far exceeded her responsibilities. After a consultation with my senior staff, we decided to move [YOUR NAME] up to the position as head of the washroom drafting department. The following week, she was on my senior staff.

As for her skills and capabilities as an architect, I can only describe her as sublime and insurpassable. If her work contains flaws, it is only that we may not be blinded, or to gently remind us of our frail humanity and the transience of all things.

She knows how to use autoCAD, yes, but it is a lie and an obscenity to describe her dance and art as "using" autoCAD if it were a mere drafting tool- I am a poor man, weak in imagination, who can barely produce a technical image of a hypothetical piece of hardware in an imaginary building. [YOUR NAME] creates labyrinthine, living vector worlds, terrifying and brilliant in their beauty.

The drawing sets which emerge we print on Mylar- bond paper disintegrates under the endless tears of men and women who are profoundly moved. As a document, it is a bridge over the impossible chasm which separates eternity, spirit, and sublimity from the visceral and temporal joy of sensual and phenomenological experience. Her bound sets inspire cities around the world. After submitting Central Dry Cleaning, city officials released the drawing set to the public. At present, there are over 17,500 identical buildings under construction, many in remote villages with no motorized vehicles.

Her five page Stair 08- Construction Details  has been on top of the New York Times Bestseller list for nine weeks, and has only been recently been surpassed by her critically acclaimed Door Hardware Schedule, with a Broadway adaption slated for November.

A month ago, it gave me great pleasure to step aside and offer her my seat as the head of [NAME OF OFFICE], which is her current position. When [YOUR NAME] asked me write her a letter of recommendation, I broke down in tears. I am as unequal to this task, I told her, as the snowflake to the avalanche. She rebuked me, citing the equality of all people, and that she required my help, wretched as it may be.

I would not hestitate to recommend [ YOUR NAME ] for the position of architect, chairman, University President, Head of State, and Pope Emeritus. I would not hesitate for a microsecond. Please, I implore, you, get in touch with me immediately to inquire about her qualifications and experience. I would be ecstatic to give you a copy of Unrivaled Genius: [YOUR NAME].  She is an apogee, a guru singularity of the human race, and above her genius, grace, empathy, wisdom, and prescience, is her bottomless well of humility.

With Utmost Sincerity,

[ NAME OF SUPERVISOR]
[ TITLE ]
[ YOUR LAST NAME ] Architects