<p>First off, happy new year!! I just finished writing my Stanford essay: Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development. I wrote about how my fear of my teacher reading the n-word in Huck Finn led to me researching the word and subsequently writing a speech against the censorship of it in Huck Finn. However, I never used the word in the essay. Do you think admissions would understand which word I am referring to?</p>
<p>I would think so. I personally hated that book. LOL </p>
<p>Wait, is it a bad idea to use it in an essay? I did so quite a few times in my Uchi essay. I was quoting someone else.</p>
<p>Thank you for responding! Lol really? I enjoyed it. I don’t know if it’s BAD. I would be hesitant to use it more than a couple of times, but it really depends on the essay.</p>
<p>They would probably understand what you’re talking about, but if you want to include the actual word, then that’s fine. It’s not like they’ve never seen it before. :)</p>
<p>If I were you, I would not quote it at all. I’m sure if you say the “n-word”, they will know what you mean.</p>
<p>Admissions will definitely understand what you mean by “the n word” and I don’t really think using the actual word is wrong. I think they will know your’e using it as part of a story and not just throwing it there like a rapper :)</p>
<p>Thank you guys! I did not even say “n-word”, i just said “the/that word” but gave a lot of context for it.</p>
<p>I actually liked Huck Finn. 
I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t really affected nor offended of the way they used the “n- word” because I know it’s just a story and it describes how people were back in the 19th/20th centuries. Anyways, back to your question, it really depends on whether you’re comfortable saying the entire word, if not, then you are open to describing the word however you like/feel comfortable with. :D</p>
<p>I think they’ll put two and two together. and i have used the n word in essays without sounding too gauche, but to give it a raw personal feel, because i’m the only black person in all of my honors classes and nobody really gets the whole n-word stigma.</p>