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Blogs by Marie Wadsworth
Contractions Don't Exist 5/16/2007 7:37:56 PM
When I returned to graduate school in fall 2006, I was re-introduced to academic writing (writing essays, research papers and the like). I was surprised to learn that contractions aren't used at all in academic writing. It's like they don't even exist.
When I took a writing profiency test for master's degree at the university I was attending early this spring, the professor administering the test told us we were free to write in any style of our choosing. I raised my hand and asked if we were free to use contractions in our essay. The test administrator said we'd be penalized for using contractions in our essay. So, of course, I didn't use them.
Now this is what I can't figure is this. We teach our children about contractions in school. Now it's been a while since I've been in high school and I'm not sure if we were allowed to use contractions in essays and research papers then. I'm curious about the standard on contractions in essays and research papers for high school students nowadays.
We teach our children about contractions, and contractions are commonly used in most writing outside academia. What I'd like to know is: Why does academia pretend that contractions don't exist? What does academia have against contractions?
