How to Write a Character Letter?

A character letter is more of a recommendation letter, which backs up the candidate, whether it is for a job, school or even for the court. It acts as a background check for your friend or someone you know, before someone hires them, or before they get an admission in a good school. Sometimes it might be difficult for you to design a character letter if you haven’t written it before but it can be easy if you have enough information about the person you are writing the letter for, that would make the character letter acceptable by the receiving parties.

So here are a few things that you must be sure of when writing a character letter.

• Maintain a formal tone
• Use good English language
• Add important details about the person for whom you are writing the letter for
• Be honest. Someone is hiring the person based on your recommendation

Now, when you start to write the character letter, you need to make sure that you include the following information.

1. The relationship that you and that person for whom you are writing the character letter for share.
   You need to mention what your relationship is with the person so that the authenticity of the letter increases for the people who are analyzing your friend/family person. The basic idea behind a character letter is to show the hiring parties that this candidate could be the best choice for them. Instead of just mentioning that, say, Mr.Z is just your friend. You can write, ‘I was obliged to be Mr. Z’s teacher for the last semester in California University’.

   

2. The format of the letter should be suitable for a formal setting.
   When you are writing a character letter, you need to follow a certain format. The most common format for a character letter is dividing your letter into three parts.
   Where the first paragraph would be about your and Mr.Z’s relation and all the important details regarding it.
   The second paragraph would be your idea about the character of Mr. Z. What you have seen in him, what you think about Mr.Z as a person or as a student, and how you think Mr.Z has been as a student/employee/neighbor for the years you have spent time together.
   And the third paragraph would be about how the person reading this letter, should consider Mr.Z to be a suitable candidate for the position that they are hiring for or giving a seat in college.
3. Sign off the letter with ‘Sincerely’ to show your due respect to the person, and add your name .
   For example, Sincerely, Habiba Rehman

   

4. Make sure that the letter does not exceed a page. Making it too long will make the character letter less attractive to the readers. They, the people who will be reading this letter and judging your friend/student accordingly, are looking for the basics. They want to know the important things about Mr.Z in the shortest and summarized way possible. If you think adding too much information would be beneficial for the candidate, you might want to rethink your scenario.
   However, keeping it short does not mean that you should not add important details about the candidate. You must keep it simple, brief and informative all at the same time.
5. Don’t add the negative details. However, don’t lie about the positives either. Write the positive characteristics of your friend/student as you know him.A character certificate shows how positive or how good that person is or would be for the company. So make sure that the adjectives that you use to describe the actions of Mr.Z should be very positive. For instance, helpful personality, giving nature, good teammate, enthusiastic learner.The reason why you must not add the negative details is to avoid rejection of the person you are writing for.
6. As you write down important events of the candidate’s life, you must analyse the level of importance of that specific information. Ask yourself if this piece of information needs to be written in a character letter. And if it is a no, do not write it down. Remember always, keep it simple, brief and informative.
7. The last and the most important step that you must do is to recheck your letter before you forward it to the receivers. You need to make sure there are no grammatical errors. No extra information and everything must be relevant to the topic, that is, the character of the candidate. Using a good vocabulary is a plus pint as it makes the letter more appealing to the reader, but don’t go overboard with that. Simplicity first. The following picture is an example of a Character letter. Hope it will help you write yours more effectively.