<p>Hey, I need some advice on my college admission essay.</p>
<p>I got a book from the library from the College Board. They say that for admission essays you want to use a conversational tone. </p>
<p>But does that mean that you should use contractions and the word "you"?</p>
<p>If I was talking to someone I'm not going say " I will not go to the movies because I do not want to". I'm going to say "I won't go to the movies because I don't want to." I've also heard that you want to use the tone that you'd use in an interview, but I'd still use contractions either way.</p>
<p>A few of the essays in the back of the college board book uses some contractions and there are other essays that don't use any.</p>
<p>And can I use the word "you" in the essay? I use it a few times. One example is at the very beginning of one of my essays I say "You know that saying "blah blah blah..." ?" </p>
<p>I brought it to my community college's writing center and they told me not to use the word you at all, but they also told me to get rid of all the conversational tone and write my admissions essay like a research paper. They told me to open with a thesis then three sentences discussing what each of your paragraphs will be saying. However all the advice I'm getting is contrary to that.</p>
<p>Contractions are fine. Great in fact, if it prevents you from falling into the trap of writing “formal”, generic vague phrases and language. </p>
<p>“You”… not so much. It sounds really distracting and grating ANYWHERE, especially in that example you gave. There are much better ways to phrase it.</p>
<p>The advice the writing center gave you is truly horrible! I’ve read a bunch of essays and it’s extremely obvious when someone is writing using language they don’t understand, trying to portray themselves in an unnaturally good light to please admission officers. (“From this life-changing experience I found a propensity of diversity in my science club. This has made me value diversity and made me a more thoughtful and made me want to help others.”) Research/formal writing is vague at best (unless you’re a great writer, but that’s rare, you know if you aren’t) and at worst makes you look like a really, really bad cliche… Go loose with the structure; officers aren’t counting the number of sentences in each paragraph like a 7th grade Eng teacher! :)</p>
<p>If you want I can look at your language. Generally a conversational tone IS more direct, concise, and meaningful.</p>
<p>I absolutely think that the community college people are wrong. You definitely should use as much of conversational tone as possible (without going over the edge of course).</p>
<p>Don’t listen to the writing center. Their advice is the most horrible one I ever read. First of all the college essays are supposed to be personal. Writing in a research style is not only boring but it will get your paper ignored.</p>