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Grammar question

Has it become acceptable to use contractions in term papers?  I've started grading my crop, and every single one of them has instances of didn't, it's, wasn't etc. I was taught, lo these years ago, that you NEVER use a contraction in a paper.  Did I miss something?  Is this akin to the double space after a period thing?
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Re: Grammar question

  • I see a ton of contractions in the essays I grade as well. I think the rules on contractions have become a lot more lax. I strongly discourage the use of contractions in an academic essay, but I usually don't take off points off for them (unless there is a ton). One thing my students struggle with in  essay writing seems to be staying in a consistent point of view. A student will start out in the first-person and then switch to the second-person and then back again to first. It drives me nuts! 
     
     
     
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  • I've seen the POV issue, too.
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  • When I was in college/grad contractions were instant points off, even if there was only one. I don't remember if they did that in high school though, but my high school English teachers failed us miserably in everything so there's that.
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  • I teach at a university and I'm really ambivalent about the use of contractions when I grade student papers. 
    Maybe I'm just more informal by nature, but I just don't get why this is a big thing. Why do we care if they use contractions or not? The meaning stays the same. Students don't sound uneducated if they substitute isn't for is not in the same way that they do if they write u instead of you

    I guess I get that it's a convention for academic papers, it just feels like an antiquated and arbitrary one to me. 


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