Contractions
March 17, 2008
In English we can turn cannot into can’t, would not into wouldn’t, is not into isn’t, will not into won’t, and so on. We call these short forms contractions.
Contractions are for spoken English and informal prose, but never formal prose, including college essays, cover letters for job applications, statements of purpose for graduate school applications, and so on. A blog, on the other hand, is informal, so it’s okay to use contractions here.
Pretty straightforward, right? Then why do I still see contractions in student papers? I suspect it is because contractions come to us so naturally that we overlook them. To counteract this tendency, we need to proofread our written work specifically for these pesky little things.
Entry Filed under: contractions, formal prose, style. Tags: academic writing, contractions, proofreading, writing.
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1.
Daniel | March 17, 2008 at 12:26 pm
thanks for reminding me how much I DON’T miss college essays.
2.
Ian Thal | March 17, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Strange. If there was one thing that was drilled into me in High School it was that contractions were unacceptable in academic writing. However, it still took me some years to gain an appreciation for the other essentials.
3.
meghnak | March 18, 2008 at 12:15 am
Hi Stoneman,
A very common mistake that you had pointed out. Being an avid (student) internet user, i initially thought that contractions were for formal passages also. You can see that I use them extensively in my writings. But now that you have pointed out the mistake, I will try not to use them much and create such an error!
Thanks for the help!
4.
timethief | March 22, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Thanks for reminding me again of what I learned and then forgot years ago. The more I look around your blog the more I realize how much I have forgotten. I’ll be back.
5.
Adriana Mendes | April 1, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I believe, then, that we are not allowed to use contractions in our TOEFL essays as well.
It is funny, though, to think of when we start learning English and we have all these long (and boring) drills on how to use contractions, and at the end what do they tell us? Do not use them!
I know it is a matter of register, but sometimes when I don`t (do not?) contract it sounds artificial to me, as if I was trying to put an emphasis on my negatives. Does this happen to native speakers as well, or is it just my foreign ear?
6.
Mark Stoneman | April 1, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Sure, Adriana, contractions often sound more normal. Daniel’s remark at the top reflects a common sentiment.