撰写美国留学推荐信最重要的一点就是能够成功突出申请者的优势，让学校对你感兴趣、欣赏你。所以，推荐信的内容切忌夸夸其谈。本文主要以一篇失败的推荐信来给学生分析分析，希望大家可以吸取教训。
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
Academia Sinica
推荐信分析：
您觉得这封推荐信怎样呢?如果这是一封为秘书介绍新工作的推荐信，那还可以接受;不过对于申请研究所来讲，就似乎不太够力了。
这封推荐信犯的一个大忌就是不够明确。从信中我们只看到推荐人很努力地用了一大堆形容词，试着告诉入学评审委员，这个申请人很聪明、很热心、很有潜力、很有分析能力云云，相关的例证却付之厥如。接着，这封信又未能指出这个申请者这些特质与将来的研究领域有何相关，只说在这个申请人的帮助下，他可以专心在研究工作上，言下之意似乎就是告诉对方这个申请者是一个很好的秘书，而非一个有前景的研究生。
其实，只要多用一点心思，换个观察角度，单纯、琐碎的助理工作一样也可以表现出这名申请者在与研究所有关方面的能力。比方说，推荐人不妨强调他之所以雇用这个人为研究助理，是因为这个助理以前曾做过与他目前的研究领域相关的怎样的报告，表现出申请者在这个研究领域已具备的基础知识或是研究潜力。又以资料搜集的工作为例，可以强调这个这个申请者如何善用某些方法，将资料作有系统的分析整理等。
