Are your tutors really picky about grammar?

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Not, I should make clear, that I am in the habit of sending my tutor semi-literate essays, but I was rather taken aback today to be picked up on for using 'didn't' rather than 'did not' in an essay.
Do you always need to avoid using contractions in formal essays or is this particular tutor erring on the pedantic side?

At the uni where I study, we've always been told to write in as formal a manner as possible. What subject are you studying? (I've found tutors for some subjects tend to be more picky than others.)

I would not expect to use contractions in any formal piece of writing tbh.

Having said that, writing the full phrase can seem so unnaturally formal that I find some other way of saying it!

I think it would definitely make a difference depending on what you are studying. As a university level lecturer and tutor, I am very pedantic in terms of spelling, sense (and therefore grammar and punctuation), syntax and format - but I teach on a science subject. I also object to having scientific subjects written about in an informal, chatty style - they can save that for the Media module. In fact, I taught a half day on appropriate use of language - but I can safely say I have never picked someone up on using "didn't" instead of "did not".

I did not even notice that I had done it!
When I was a young sub-editor we would have picked up on contractions, but I now think it sounds unnecessarily stilted.
I will be more careful from now on.

I'm a lecturer and I don't mind my students using contractions, but most of my colleagues disagree. Am a cow when it comes to correctness of spelling and grammar though!

It's the only thing my tutor has picked me up on!
Twice in my first assignment (hadn't and didn't) and once in the second (didn't). I did not notice myself doing it - it's just the way I speak I suppose.
Must try harder next time...

The thing is, I have been writing or editing the writing of others for a living for nearly 20 years, so I was taken aback to find that my standards were not as high as they might have been.
That will teach me!

Glad, I am not alone, Ellingwoman.

Now, see, I would have had you for that extraneous comma, LGP!
Glad, I am not alone, Ellingwoman.

Where did that come from? I did not put it there.