Thoughts on contractions? Forum

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cavalier1138

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by cavalier1138 » Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:58 pm

I can't believe I forgot about this earlier.

Read this PS: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5#p7043459

Contractions galore. And it is one of the best examples of a stellar personal statement. Granted, with their numbers, that poster was always going to get in everywhere. But it's a study in every good stylistic choice that you should make in writing a statement: it's personal, well-written, emotionally effective, and perfectly encapsulates why someone would want to go to law school in the first place. The contractions work because the person writing it is clearly a good writer to begin with and knows that their authentic voice won't come through on the page without the contractions they chose to use there. It's the difference between dry, technically correct writing and the kind of writing that can actually elevate your application and make you more competitive than your numbers would suggest.

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by rpupkin » Fri Jun 10, 2016 2:03 pm

cavalier1138 wrote: It's the difference between dry, technically correct writing and the kind of writing that can actually elevate your application and make you more competitive than your numbers would suggest.
I disagree, because the writing in that personal statement is technically correct. I'm all for following rules of grammar in anything you submit as part of your law school application. But I'm against making up fake rules and then screaming at people on message boards who advise others not to follow your fake rule.

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cavalier1138

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by cavalier1138 » Fri Jun 10, 2016 2:09 pm

rpupkin wrote:
cavalier1138 wrote: It's the difference between dry, technically correct writing and the kind of writing that can actually elevate your application and make you more competitive than your numbers would suggest.
I disagree, because the writing in that personal statement is technically correct. I'm all for following rules of grammar in anything you submit as part of your law school application. But I'm against making up fake rules and then screaming at people on message boards who advise others not to follow your fake rule.
Oh, absolutely. I don't advocate writing the entire thing in lower-case with line breaks instead of punctuation. I don't think that you shouldn't obey general grammar rules in writing it. I was simply emphasizing the difference between a really solid personal statement that is technically correct because of the proficiency of the writer and one that is technically correct because the person writing it is sweating bullets over whether they put a comma in the right place.

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PDX4343

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by PDX4343 » Mon Jun 13, 2016 10:13 pm

FWIW, Mike Spivey was asked about contractions in a post awhile back and said that personally he has no problem with them. He mentioned that he was sympathetic to the fact that applicants are constrained by personal statement length limits, and said he understood the need to economize the available space. However, I'm not sure if he speaks for the broader admissions community on this or not.

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Jordan Catalano

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by Jordan Catalano » Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:09 pm

rpupkin wrote:what "rule on grammar and style" does one break by using contractions in a personal statement? Given the strength of your convictions ("Your advice is truly terrible!"), I'm sure you can readily point to the authority for the "rule on grammar and style" that the OP would break.
What rule? The rule that says you shouldn't use contractions in a professional piece of writing. It doesn't matter if contractions are proper elsewhere. Shitting in a public toilet is fine, shitting in the middle of the moving walkway at the public airport is not. There is a time and place for everything : D

I'm no Miss Manners (see above comment), but this "rule" (which can be broken in some instances) is pretty standard for professional writing (academic papers, important/formal emails, court documents, cover letters, etc).

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rpupkin

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by rpupkin » Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:33 pm

Jordan Catalano wrote:
rpupkin wrote:what "rule on grammar and style" does one break by using contractions in a personal statement? Given the strength of your convictions ("Your advice is truly terrible!"), I'm sure you can readily point to the authority for the "rule on grammar and style" that the OP would break.
What rule? The rule that says you shouldn't use contractions in a professional piece of writing.
Cite? Get used to this if you want to be a lawyer. If you want to rely on a "rule" to make your argument, you need something more than whatever is bouncing around in your little head. The point folks are making is that you're making up a rule that doesn't exist.

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by somewhatferal » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:42 pm

Jordan Catalano wrote:
rpupkin wrote:what "rule on grammar and style" does one break by using contractions in a personal statement? Given the strength of your convictions ("Your advice is truly terrible!"), I'm sure you can readily point to the authority for the "rule on grammar and style" that the OP would break.
What rule? The rule that says you shouldn't use contractions in a professional piece of writing. It doesn't matter if contractions are proper elsewhere. Shitting in a public toilet is fine, shitting in the middle of the moving walkway at the public airport is not. There is a time and place for everything : D

I'm no Miss Manners (see above comment), but this "rule" (which can be broken in some instances) is pretty standard for professional writing (academic papers, important/formal emails, court documents, cover letters, etc).
I have worked with copy editors from Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. They accept no such rule.

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Jordan Catalano

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by Jordan Catalano » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:46 pm

rpupkin wrote:
Jordan Catalano wrote:
rpupkin wrote:what "rule on grammar and style" does one break by using contractions in a personal statement? Given the strength of your convictions ("Your advice is truly terrible!"), I'm sure you can readily point to the authority for the "rule on grammar and style" that the OP would break.
What rule? The rule that says you shouldn't use contractions in a professional piece of writing.
Cite? Get used to this if you want to be a lawyer. If you want to rely on a "rule" to make your argument, you need something more than whatever is bouncing around in your little head. The point folks are making is that you're making up a rule that doesn't exist.
As I have stated in previous posts, avoiding contractions (whenever possible) in formal writing is pretty standard, although based on the responses in this thread it might be going out of style, hence your youthful ignorance of what should be common sense.

An NYU pre-law personal statement guide: http://prelaw.cas.nyu.edu/docs/CP/2746/ ... elines.pdf
"Avoid clichés, slang, contractions, “legalese,” passive voice..."

Another application website: http://www.gradvocates.com/blog/2013/04 ... statement/
"Don’t use contractions. We can because this blog is not an application document!"

A graduate essay guide: https://www.essayedge.com/graduate/grad ... e/mistakes
"Avoid contractions (don’t, can’t, isn’t) in a formal graduate statement of purpose. This statement should illustrate your best writing skills."

UCLA has something to say about contractions: https://grad.ucla.edu/asis/agep/advsopstem.pdf
"Contractions: Avoid in informal writing: don’t, can’t, won’t..."

A note: while some websites say that say it is fine to use contractions you should pay attention to the fact that these websites are mostly not discussing law school personal statements. Lastly, take a glance at my previous comment on "Why risk it?" People in academia are more likely to be aware of these rules, and it doesn't matter if you have never heard of them.

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Jordan Catalano

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by Jordan Catalano » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:47 pm

somewhatferal wrote:I have worked with copy editors from Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. They accept no such rule.
What you are working with makes a huge difference, and I am guessing you weren't editing law school personal statements.

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by somewhatferal » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:48 pm

Well, if the Gradvocates Professional Editing Team says so, then who am I to judge?

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by somewhatferal » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:49 pm

Jordan Catalano wrote:
somewhatferal wrote:I have worked with copy editors from Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. They accept no such rule.
What you are working with makes a huge difference, and I am guessing you weren't editing law school personal statements.
You said that there is a rule in academic writing that one shouldn't use contractions. There is no such rule.

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Jordan Catalano

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by Jordan Catalano » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:53 pm

somewhatferal wrote:Well, if the Gradvocates Professional Editing Team says so, then who am I to judge?
Psssh there is NYU, UCLA and Purdue in there, too. You are free to Google, as well!
somewhatferal wrote:You said that there is a rule in academic writing that one shouldn't use contractions. There is no such rule.
This thread is about a law school personal statement, so the convo is centered around that.

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rpupkin

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by rpupkin » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:58 pm

Jordan Catalano wrote: UCLA has something to say about contractions: https://grad.ucla.edu/asis/agep/advsopstem.pdf
"Contractions: Avoid in informal writing: don’t, can’t, won’t..."
Look at the context. As slides two and three show, this is about contrasting a scientific Statement of Purpose from a Personal Statement. The whole point of this is that the style you might use in a personal statement (including the use of contractions!) might be inappropriate in a Statement of Purpose. This doesn't support your point at all; actually, it undermines it.
Jordan Catalano wrote:A note: while some websites say that say it is fine to use contractions you should pay attention to the fact that these websites are mostly not discussing law school personal statements. Lastly, take a glance at my previous comment on "Why risk it?" People in academia are more likely to be aware of these rules, and it doesn't matter if you have never heard of them.
I think this is where you're most confused. Law school adcomms are generally not "people in academia," and a personal statement is not a piece of formal academic writing. Indeed, you'll likely be worse off if you treat it as such.

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by 34iplaw » Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:06 pm

Jordan Catalano wrote:
somewhatferal wrote:Well, if the Gradvocates Professional Editing Team says so, then who am I to judge?
Psssh there is NYU, UCLA and Purdue in there, too. You are free to Google, as well!
somewhatferal wrote:You said that there is a rule in academic writing that one shouldn't use contractions. There is no such rule.
This thread is about a law school personal statement, so the convo is centered around that.
You seem to have the handle on this, but I was definitely taught in classes throughout my life [from elementary school to high school to college...not as much there, because I was in a business program] to avoid using contractions in formal writing. It is possible that it is going out of style now. I always viewed this as a 'soft rule' meaning that you don't have to go out of your way to not break it - i.e. you do not sounds really weird and I would certainly elect to use don't over it. I think it is more about tone, and I look at it this way. Unless you write something that sounds really pretentious by avoiding to use contractions, it is far more likely someone will find the frequent use of contractions weird than someone will find the lack of contractions odd.

Again, I really think this is getting nit picky about personal statements, but, then again, it's important. My personal preference for my personal statement is that I will try to use contractions where they best match the cadence I want to establish - i.e. if I want a short and blunt sentence, I will certainly use a contraction.

Long story short, I think you can use contractions, but you need to make sure that your writing isn't too informal and, by using contractions, you may open yourself up to that risk.

Edit: This whole post of mine I realized is rather contradictory. In the end, I think using contractions is something you should be careful with. In my mind, I didn't even think that person used contractions all that much. They used them a lot in one or two paragraphs, but the rest was fairly devoid of them. They were primarily used in the more personal paragraphs, IIRC.

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Jordan Catalano

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by Jordan Catalano » Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:16 pm

rpupkin wrote:
Jordan Catalano wrote: UCLA has something to say about contractions: https://grad.ucla.edu/asis/agep/advsopstem.pdf
"Contractions: Avoid in informal writing: don’t, can’t, won’t..."
Look at the context. As slides two and three show, this is about contrasting a scientific Statement of Purpose from a Personal Statement. The whole point of this is that the style you might use in a personal statement (including the use of contractions!) might be inappropriate in a Statement of Purpose. This doesn't support your point at all; actually, it undermines it.
Jordan Catalano wrote:A note: while some websites say that say it is fine to use contractions you should pay attention to the fact that these websites are mostly not discussing law school personal statements. Lastly, take a glance at my previous comment on "Why risk it?" People in academia are more likely to be aware of these rules, and it doesn't matter if you have never heard of them.
I think this is where you're most confused. Law school adcomms are generally not "people in academia," and a personal statement is not a piece of formal academic writing. Indeed, you'll likely be worse off if you treat it as such.
I'm using "adcomm" here liberally to refer to anyone who is looking over your personal statement/application, which can include professors.

I think a more informal approach is appropriate for an undergrad personal statement, whereas a law school personal statement should be more formal. Do you want to address the other links? I have a few years under my belt doing work that requires formal writing. That combined with the fact that law school application advice generally says to avoid contractions was enough for me to avoid using them in my personal statement.

Ultimately, you can do whatever you want in your personal statement, but I would go back to my "Why risk it?" comment: what if I was the adcomm looking over your essay and I was splitting hairs trying to pick you versus another applicant whose writing sounded more appropriate for a law school application?

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by somewhatferal » Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:23 pm

Jordan Catalano wrote:
somewhatferal wrote:You said that there is a rule in academic writing that one shouldn't use contractions. There is no such rule.
This thread is about a law school personal statement, so the convo is centered around that.
This is revisionist posturing. You cited formal academic writing to make a point that a formal piece of writing like a law school personal statement should not use contractions. I am arguing that your premise -- that there is such a rule for formal writing such as academic writing -- is false. I am an Actual Person in Academia who has published peer reviewed articles, assisted editing peer reviewed manuscripts published in prestigious houses, and read thousands of articles in several fields. In my experience, no such rule exists in formal academic writing. Given my familiarity with the OUP and CUP style sheet, I think that, if such a rule existed, it would have popped up at some point. Perhaps there is a rule for a smaller subset of formal writing that does not include academic writing, but you can't cite academic writing in support of your point.

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by Milksteak » Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:35 pm

This girl I know used no contractions on her PS, got $0 at WUSTTTL and is now an equity partner at her V7. Then I know this other guy that used contractions on his PS, Harvard and no offered by V52 up. Then this other person used contractions only on her Yale 250 and not her PS. Got offers only at some V12 trash, took it,
NO BREAKFASTED. Take that advice as you will.

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Jordan Catalano

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by Jordan Catalano » Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:42 pm

somewhatferal wrote:
Jordan Catalano wrote:
somewhatferal wrote:You said that there is a rule in academic writing that one shouldn't use contractions. There is no such rule.
This thread is about a law school personal statement, so the convo is centered around that.
This is revisionist posturing. You cited formal academic writing to make a point that a formal piece of writing like a law school personal statement should not use contractions. I am arguing that your premise -- that there is such a rule for formal writing such as academic writing -- is false. I am an Actual Person in Academia who has published peer reviewed articles, assisted editing peer reviewed manuscripts published in prestigious houses, and read thousands of articles in several fields. In my experience, no such rule exists in formal academic writing. Given my familiarity with the OUP and CUP style sheet, I think that, if such a rule existed, it would have popped up at some point. Perhaps there is a rule for a smaller subset of formal writing that does not include academic writing, but you can't cite academic writing in support of your point.
If your qualifications are legit, that is honestly shocking to me. Perhaps, as I and others have stated, it is a generational thing. "The rules could be changing." I, as well as a poster above, grew up with contractions (in applications, cover letters, etc.) being strongly frowned upon. You might as well have written your statement in an odd font on bright pink paper. From what I see from the law school application websites, this attitude is still held by those in the field who advise on such matters.

We seem to be going in circles: some think contractions in a law school statement are perfectly fine, others think the opposite. I don't think we are getting any closer to agreement.

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cavalier1138

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by cavalier1138 » Thu Jun 16, 2016 12:59 am

I'm most amused by the NYU guidelines, since my congratulatory note from NYU specifically referenced and praised my personal statement (which was, of course, rife with contractions).

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by Tempo » Thu Jun 16, 2016 2:59 am

cavalier1138 wrote:I'm most amused by the NYU guidelines, since my congratulatory note from NYU specifically referenced and praised my personal statement (which was, of course, rife with contractions).
Same here. My advisor suggested taking them out, but I felt it would take away from my voice (which I have always thought was strong in my writing). So I left them in. Got into NYU with a note stating that my personal statement was heartfelt and great and whatnot. I think, like all things in writing, it's about how you use them.

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Re: Thoughts on contractions?

Post by encore1101 » Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:06 am

LeDique wrote:I'm having them can someone get me to the hospital


is your cervix dilating

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