Tips for Recommendation Letter Request

[bobosensei]

I'm applying to grad school and will be asking 2 previous supervisors to write a recommendation for me.  What is the best way to help someone with the recommendation letter- short of actually writing it myself (which I wouldn't be comfortable doing though if it means getting into the program or not I would)?  

Right now I am sketching out all of the accomplishments from my time working with the supervisors and also including information they probably didn't know about awards I won and things I was doing in the community that wasn't directly related to my job.  I'll do a separate list for each recommender tailored to the way that they each worked with me so that if they use some or all of the points then the letters won't end up looking exactly the same.  Obviously some of it will be the same though.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?  I've only written two recommendation letters for people.  One was when I was in college and a president of a honor fraternity, and the other time was for a peer who started out as a volunteer for me that just needed a token letter to be able to do a volunteer management class that would lead to some sort of certification.  I didn't get the impression that it was terribly selective but I wrote a nice letter and she did get into the class.  The longest part of writing the letters was coming up with concrete examples to support the things I was saying.  So I would have liked to have had some of that information sent to me.  The way I am thinking this will make it easier to get a yes because a lot of the work will be done for them.  They won't have to sit and think for 2 hours about everything that I did, and in turn I can make sure that they don't forget something.  But I also expect that they will both have their own vivid memories of things and will add or edit the starting points as they see fit if they choose to use them at all.

Is this a good way to approach it?
 

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Why don't you send a copy of your résumé/CV and let your supervisors pick from that?

[bobosensei]

Thanks everyone!

I am applying to a software engineering program that has a specific entry point for people without relevant degrees or experience.  If accepted I have to start a certificate program that is about half the length of the masters first.

So not only do I not have relevant technical experience that can be highlighted the supervisors don't either.  I'm not concerned about this as everyone else applying to the program this way will be in my shoes too.  I think the best I can do is to focus on my previous successes.  I will include my resume too.  I have to get it updated for the application anyway.