If you'd like a letter of recommendation ...

1. Be sure to ask! If the Common App tells me I'm writing a letter for you before you do, I'm probably not writing a letter for you.
2. Give me a deadline. Remember, I'm a wee bit busy during the school year, so I need a good deal of lead time.
3. Give me an audience. Different universities deserve different letters.
4. Remind me what you wrote about. If you can't remember, look in your google docs folder.
5. Give me a piece of paper that says "So and so needs a letter by such and such a date." This piece of paper doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to be in my way when I clean my desk so I don't forget about you.
6. Once I've written one letter for you, it's easy to revise it for different audiences (scholarships, for example). Feel free to ask for those letters later in the year.