I was asked to sketch a draft for my own "LOR" and have now googled around a lot.. This is what I came up with, and I'd like you to have a look at it, criticize, change..or just give me your thoughts about it. If you could come up with any ideas concerning the points in angular brackets [..], I would be very grateful..It feels pretty weird to praise oneself in such a way..

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To Whom it May Concern

I am writing this letter in behalf of John of Waringham. He asked me to write this general letter, which he may show to any prospective employer who asks him for references.

I have known John for 3 month in my capacity as his supervisor at the XX department at YY University, USA. He worked for us as a research assistant in these 3 months and has shown both an exceptional high organization and efficiency. He was always punctual and delivered good results even under the pressure of time applied by the short duration of our shared project. Due to the multi-proxy research done on that[our?] project, he had to work closely together with other team-members of our department [how can I put this more..positive?]. He worked self responsible, highly productively creating data from the very first day of his arrival, always being open to help others and ask for help alike. His lab citizenship was outstanding and as concentrated and neat as the whole research. Nonetheless, he [ability to interact socially].
Though being from Germany, communication problems occurred neither in written or oral form and we were amazed by his language skills especially concerning specific scientific terms also.

Unfortunately, our mutual work had to end after the 3 months and he had to return to his home country [or: Germany], but we would like to have him back here for another project.

[conclusion? I can recommend John for any job needing a highly self-responsible and effective researcher, being able to work alone or in a team. ]