Hi DCJ--

Chicago Booth has a great list of 10 Tips for Recommendations: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/boothconnec ... ation.aspx

The best way to prep someone who's not done this before is to a) emphasize the importance of it, so that they understand how much what they say can help you; and b) ask them to provide concrete examples to back up whatever they say.

Some companies have standard employee evaluations, if those have been done on you in the past year or so, then maybe you can remind your recommender about that and see if they can use some of the material that was captured there. Usually the HR department wants examples in those evaluations, so sometimes there's some useful content within them.

Hope this helps!
EssaySnark