When seeking LORs, is it acceptable in in your best interest to write them yourself?

[Azakdan2682]

Especially if I am in a time crunch? I am use to writing my own packages, as in my own Enlisted reports, awards packages etc, where the person signing it just reviews it and changes whatever they think is necessary and signing. A couple of the LORs I want are from people who are extremely busy, F-35 and F-16 weapons officers that would very unlikely have the time to draft the letters them self. Any insight would be great, thanks.

[napoleonpp]

I'm not sure how most people do it. I was told to write mine for my Company Commander, Battalion Commander, Regimental Commander and our One Star. You try writing 4 letters about yourself that don't all sound the same lol. All the pilots I had a personal relationship with were more than willing to write their own for me though.

[steve0]

Just don't go full Donald Trump on it:

 

"He's an astonishingly outstanding individual, I've honestly never seen anything like it in my life. As a 4 star general who was personally involved in executing tactical missions of the highest level which saved the free world on hundreds of occasions, I can personally guarantee that this incredible human being will not only be the most heroic pilot in military history, but his fantastic exploits will be worthy of inclusion among the epics of Homer. We will not be able to manufacture enough medals to pin on him without launching a national campaign in which school children will gleefully collect scrap metal from the streets, as they did in WWII. He's absolutely amazing!"

[Luofynerd]

I wrote 3/4 of my letters and the 4th one I half wrote. He handed me a letter he wrote prior and said change this to reflect you. Lmao. So I did. The other ones, I actually typed the entire thing. Company commander pretty much chopped it to hell and back made it pretty solid. After that I kind of saw how he changed it and wrote the BCs letter. When he read it he was like who wrote this? I was like me..he goes wow, I have no significant changes this is outstanding. He added one sentence that said "he is one of the top NCOs in my battalion" or something to that effect. I was like alright I didn't wanna toot my own horn lmao. The first one I typed was for a cw4 in my company at the time she asked me to type it up because she was busy. So I did. She signed it made no changes, the CW5 I interviewed with read it and was like "that's very well written, yes yes yes." I was like buahaha he don't even know ole dumb me wrote dat thaaang.

[stearmann4]

If you write your own LOR for you company or BN commander, it can go one of two ways; either they are busy and will sign whatever you place in front of them as a way of expediting the process with the least amount of effort, or they are very aware of any documents being forwarded with their signature on them, especially BN commanders. Unless you are a great writer, and I mean academically perfect. I would let the reviewing superior write the LOR. I've had at least a dozen aspiring candidates write their LORs for me. In the end I gave them mine and theirs and asked which one they wanted to go in front of the board?

 

As a technique I recommend rather than writing your own LOR, provide a bulletined list with your quantifiable accomplishments in descending order of importance, along with a business style resume. You can use your word-smithing in the bullet descriptions which the reviewer can directly draw from to write the LOR. This is usually the case for company and BN command LORs, most WOs will want to write their own letters. Also keep in mind, in most cases if you can get your company commander to produce a good letter, your BN commander will simply draw from it since he/she may not know you or your accomplishments personally.

 

This technique subtly gets the verbiage you want in your letter, and at the same time allows the reviewer to legitimately participate in the process.

 

If you do end up writing your own LOR, be wary of anyone who looks at it, signs their name and says "good job". We rarely write as well as we think, even now I'll still have several peers review important letters I send forward.

 

Mike-

[Creep0321]

As usual, I agree with Mike. I was never a fan of writing my own LOR's. I did exactly what he suggested, provided a bullet list of accomplishments, a short resume/summary. And a short "interview" with the officers that eventually wrote my LOR's. For me, it worked out well, actually one of the letters that was written had a lot of grammatical errors, and the O5 had no problem making the corrections for me.

[Azakdan2682]

If you write your own LOR for you company or BN commander, it can go one of two ways; either they are busy and will sign whatever you place in front of them as a way of expediting the process with the least amount of effort, or they are very aware of any documents being forwarded with their signature on them, especially BN commanders. Unless you are a great writer, and I mean academically perfect. I would let the reviewing superior write the LOR. I've had at least a dozen aspiring candidates write their LORs for me. In the end I gave them mine and theirs and asked which one they wanted to go in front of the board?

 

As a technique I recommend rather than writing your own LOR, provide a bulletined list with your quantifiable accomplishments in descending order of importance, along with a business style resume. You can use your word-smithing in the bullet descriptions which the reviewer can directly draw from to write the LOR. This is usually the case for company and BN command LORs, most WOs will want to write their own letters. Also keep in mind, in most cases if you can get your company commander to produce a good letter, your BN commander will simply draw off of that one.

 

This technique subtly gets the verbiage you want in your letter, and at the same time allows the reviewer to legitimately take place in the process.

 

If you do end up writing your OWN LOR, be wary of anyone who looks at it, signs their name and says "good job". We rarely write as well as we think, even now I'll still have several peers review important letters I send forward.

 

Mike-

 

 

I have some decent experience with writing as I have accomplished finishing a Master's and have written numerous awards packages. I agree though that peer review is necessary and I might luck out and have of them write it.

[stearmann4]

Azakdan,

 

You're the exception, most of us are knuckle draggers, use what works for you and the folks your working with.

 

Mike-

[Esdras_R]

Like creep said, bullet lists have worked with my previous letters, I had corrections and they were made quickly with no issues. You seem to have confidence in your writing and if that works for you, great. Just don't trust anyone completely, have a second set of eyes.