A letter of reference and a reference letter are the same document under two names, and the template is the same: the relationship and the period first, the work and the strengths in the middle with an example for each, the results with a number, and a recommendation the writer will repeat on the phone. Firms search for it under both names, so this page exists under this one; the structure is set out in full on the reference letter template page and the free reference letter on this site sizes the parts from the engagement's own facts, the months, the pieces of work, the strengths, the examples and the results.
What the two names do and do not signal
In practice a letter of reference is the phrase a client or an institution uses when it asks for one in writing, and a reference letter is the phrase the writer uses; neither implies a different document. What does differ is the purpose the reader states: a letter for a tender, a professional registration or a visa may need specific facts named, the dates, the capacity, the registration number of the firm, and the template's first paragraph is where they go. Ask the person what the reader is checking, and put those facts first.
The template's parts, in order
One: who you are, how you knew the person, the role or the engagement and its dates. Two: a paragraph for each piece of work worth describing, what they were responsible for and what it produced. Three: a paragraph for each strength, with a specific example attached. Four: the results that carry a number, a sentence each. Five: the recommendation, any limit on it stated plainly, and a direct line. The free reference letter sizes each part and prints the total words and paragraphs, so the shape is visible before a sentence is written.
Writing it from the record rather than from memory
The hard part of a letter of reference is never the prose; it is remembering, a year after the engagement, what the person actually did. A firm that keeps the engagement as a record, the work delivered, the strengths noticed at the time, the results recorded, writes the letter in ten minutes from facts. That is what Sowbird Pro keeps: the engagement against the client, and the letter kept with who it went to and when.
Questions people ask about letter of reference template
Is the reference letter on this site free?
Yes, without an account. It sizes and structures the letter from the months, the pieces of work, the strengths, the examples and the results you enter, and prints the parts. Keeping the engagement it is written from, and the letter with who it went to, is the paid product.
Is a letter of reference different from a reference letter?
No. The same document, the same parts, the same reader. A recommendation letter is also the same document in most uses; an academic recommendation for a student is the one case with its own conventions, and it is not this site's subject.
Who signs a letter of reference from a firm?
The person who knew the work: the principal or the engagement lead, on the firm's letterhead, with a direct line. Sowbird Pro puts the firm's name and registration on the letter and takes the Sowbird line off it.