contractions in writing article

Some disciplines do not have a problem with contractions in writing. While common to spoken language and informal communications (think of e-mails), contractions are rarely seen in academic writing. Using them depends on your audience. If you are reproducing an idiom that contains a contraction (e.g., “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”), leave the contraction (no need for “do not count your chickens…”). They’re far more acceptable today than they were when your grandpa was just a dad, and there’s nothing wrong with contractions in the right context. And sometimes there can be a good deal wrong without them. A contraction is a combination of two words—almost always a noun with a verb—linked with an apostrophe into one, shortened word. A few examples include can’t for cannot, isn’t for is not, and what’s for what is or what has. Examples of contractions include it’s, wasn’t, haven’t, and hundreds more (see our contractions list below) We use contractions every day, usually without noticing them. Contractions are a way to combine two words with an apostrophe. For example, to create the contraction "don't," the phrase "do not" has been squeezed into one word, and the "o" in "not" has been replaced by an apostrophe. Benjamin Dreyer says of the rule against contractions: This may be a fine rule to observe if you learned English on your native Mars, but there’s not a goshdarn thing wrong with “don’t,” “can’t,” “wouldn’t,” and all the rest of them that people naturally use, and without them many a piece would turn out stilted and would turn out stilted and wooden… Contractions are why God invented the apostrophe, so make go… A: Contractions aren’t wrong—they’re just less formal than the expanded forms. … A contraction is a shortened version of a word or phrase that uses the apostrophe to replace the elided characters. The most basic rule about contractions is that an apostrophe is used in place of all omitted letters. Use contractions in informal writing assignments and applications, such as letters or emails to your friends, informal business memos and creative writing assignments. Contractions make it easier for readers to understand your writing because they help your language sound natural. An apostrophe can also replace more than a single letter: when forming "can't" from "cannot," the apostrophe replaces both the second "n" and the "o." Contractions are commonly used in speech (or written dialogue), informal forms of writing, and where space is at a … I found a statement against avoiding contractions in Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Contractions can be used to join two separate words in order to create one shorter word. In writing, an apostrophe is used to indicate the place of the missing letters. Here are some examples: Should I use contractions in my paper? A contraction is a word or phrase that has been shortened by dropping one or more letters. An informal, conversational tone is appropriate for these assignments, so contractions are permissible. If you are writing about contractions (e.g., in a paper about language), naturally you must be able to use contractions as linguistic examples. 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