Can You Use Contractions In College Essays?
- Melchior Antoine
- Jan 11
- 3 min read
Yes, you can use contractions in college essays, most of the time. This is especially true for college essays and personal statements for undergraduate programs. The reason is simple: a college essay isn’t an academic assignment or document.
With a college application essay, the goal is to tell your story in a manner that can convince college admissions officers that you are capable of benefiting from the program in terms of personal growth and that you are capable of successfully fulfilling the program.
In addition, you have to express your passion and personality. This often means speaking in non-formal language to make your story sound less stuffy and more personal. In other words, you need to take a more or less conversational tone that makes you come across as more human.
Example of contractions being used in a college essay
Contractions are shortened forms of words that are typically used in informal settings. Examples of contractions include words such as don't (do not), I'm (I am), can't (cannot), they're (they are), he's (he is/has), and it'll (it will. There is always a risk of going too far with such informal language.
For example, “it’ll” is a very hard contraction to defend because of how informal, awkward, and hard-to-pronounce it sounds. Nevertheless, they can be effectively used to portray you as more relatable to college admissions officers.
Below is an extract from a college essay written by a student who grew up with two moms and who didn’t know her biological father. Let’s see how she uses contractions. You can read the full essay on Hamilton University's website here:
Not knowing my father doesn’t leave a void in my life. “Dad” didn’t sing “there was an old lady who swallowed a fly” and tickle me when the old lady swallowed the spider, my moms did. He didn’t take me to Gunpowder Friends Meeting where I shook hands and spent time with 80-year-old friends from the retirement home, my moms did. He didn’t console me when I began crying at the dry-erase board at school because it reminded me of white boards Mom wrote on when she was unable to talk. He didn’t teach me that love is love. He didn’t teach me who I was becoming, my moms did that.
The author — Cate — wrote an essay where they describe their ability to come to terms with the challenges of growing up with two moms and feeling like an outsider because of their non-traditional family. Cate also talks about losing a mom at a young age. This context of loss or lack is cast in the language of not or negation, relying heavily on contractions to express the negative, especially the word “didn’t.”
However, the author balances it with a more positive outlook, showing how the moms were successful in playing the roles of parenthood as effectively as any traditional family with a dad. So, not only can you use contractions in your college essay, but they can also add to the appeal of your story if you use them creatively, as in the example given.
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Are there instances where you should not use contractions?
There is no law against using contractions. However, there are circumstances where it makes less sense to use them. This is especially true for personal statements or statements of purpose written as part of an application for a graduate program.
Graduate programs are research-heavy programs, and statements of purpose, as well as other required documents that are part of the application package, such as research proposals, usually require students to write about the research they have carried out or plan to carry out.
Although contractions are not prohibited, if your essay focuses heavily on research and uses academic or scientific language extensively, try not to introduce informal language, such as contractions, when it sounds unnatural to do so.
This is because you should bear in mind the context and audience. The college admissions officers for a graduate program would subconsiously expect academic writing conventions. Therefore, it is best not to violate these expectations by including contractions where it makes no sense to do so.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2026, January 11). Can You Use Contractions In College Essays? EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/contractions-in-college-essays |