<p>I've heard that it's better not to use them, but I've also heard it sounds more natural and like your own voice when you use them, so it gives colleges a better idea of your personality. Not to mention the fact that expanding contractions eats up a chunk of your word count. So, what do you think?</p>
<p>Do not use them if at all possible</p>
<p>No contractions…(no “didn’t”…yes " did not")
No numbers (no “24.” …yes- “twenty-four”)
No slang or informal language when a simple substitution sounds just as natural (no “kids”…yes “children” or “teenagers”_</p>
<p>I think it entirely depends on the genre and style of your essay. If you’re recounting a personal anecdote with humor or with the intent of emphasizing your “voice”, avoiding contractions could actually make your essay sound stilted or inauthentic. A more cerebral essay with critical analysis could be less persuasive with contractions. But it is unlikely that whether or not you use contractions will change the overall quality of your essay. And if contractions help reduce your word count to make room for a few more powerful and meaningful descriptors, don’t hesitate to contract!</p>
<p>Do not use them. Every English instructor I know in high school and at the university say its a no no.</p>
<p>I don’t think the style of the essay should be casual in that it is conversational. If you are using a quote, then by all means. But please, DO NOT use contractions for the sake of word count. You make use of words by writing effective sentences with proper word choice. </p>
<p>This is right out of an essay I reviewed yesterday:
At a park, near my house, where we played together when we were kids, we went to try and relive our childhood.</p>
<p>better word choice (and shorter sentence)</p>
<p>In an attempt to relive our childhood, we visited the park we frequented as children. </p>
<p>That simple fix saved us seven words and created a much cleaner sentence. Now the writer can go clean up seven contractions without worry of length.</p>
<p><a href=“http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1747293/[/url]”>http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1747293/</a></p>
<p>Here’s a link that addresses this matter (see #6). College essays are personal statements. While contractions are not appropriate in history or English essays, lab write ups or research papers, they may very well enhance the tone of a college essay in some instances.</p>
<p>As I stated earlier, don’t use them unless needed. While college essays are personal statements, the are also a reflection of your writing. Are you taking this seriously? Can you write an academic paper for the number one public school in the nation? Keep in mind that though these are not research papers, you are applying to research universities. While you can follow the advice from the blog cited above, but perhaps its best to follow academic guidelines to be safe.</p>
<p>I think it depends. Like what if you use a quote, and that has a word with a contraction in it? But in general, if it’s in other cases that are your own words, you should not use them.</p>
<p>I use contraction mainly to reduce word count.</p>
<p>I feel like they should be used in some cases…we use them so much in spoken English that sentences without them sometimes sound stilted and weird. College essays are not formal papers…if they wanted to get an idea of how I’d write a college paper, I assume they’d ask me to submit something I wrote for English rather than ask for a memoir.
I guess the safest thing to do is avoid the need for contractions.</p>
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<p>Include the contraction in the quote.</p>
<p>In my Common App essay, I use contractions because the essay contains some conversation. It will be weird not to use them. But in my other essays (UC essays and many other supplements) which are more cerebral, I don’t use them.</p>
<p>Will a reader reject you because of a contraction, needed or not? No.</p>
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<p>I agree with this completely. I find that if I don’t use contractions (haha, see what I did there?), it just sounds a lot less natural. If I had to use “would not,” “could not,” and “do not” every time, I’d go crazy. It just doesn’t flow as well in many cases.</p>
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<p>Although I’m just a high school student, I highly doubt that they judge your ability to write a research paper by analyzing your writing style in a personal essay. If they wanted us to write research papers, they’d ask for research papers. Furthermore, I’ve seen several essays by friends who have gotten into MIT, UPenn, Princeton and other top RESEARCH schools - many of them used contractions, many used/asked rhetorical questions and some even used dialogue. None of these things are elements you see in research papers. And yet, they all got into top research schools. </p>
<p>And by what logic does using contractions mean that you’re not “taking this seriously”?</p>
<p>I’m not trying to pick a fight or anything; I’m just saying that in my opinion, contractions don’t help OR hurt your essay. It is simply a stylistic choice.</p>
<p>If it’s a personal essay and it sounds awkward/unnatural without contractions, I would vouch for using them. From what I’ve read admissions folk want to see honesty and a genuine voice. Forcing yourself to avoid contractions to the point that it makes the essay seem rigid is certainly not worth it in my opinion.</p>
<p>@lanawinters this is exactly what I meant by unless you have to. If you cannot write well enough to sound both comfortable and poignant without using contractions, then you should use them.</p>