{"id":665,"date":"2010-05-04T11:05:46","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T16:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/?p=665"},"modified":"2010-05-04T11:05:46","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T16:05:46","slug":"contractions-are-your-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"Contractions Are Your Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a running battle with people who ask me to write something for them, then ask that I take out all the contractions.<\/p>\n

For some reason, a lot of people think that formal language is smart language. So they eliminate contractions, or choose big, impersonal words (like “utilize”) instead of little friendly words (like “use”).<\/p>\n

There are two problems with this idea:<\/p>\n

1. It’s not true.<\/p>\n

2. Even if it were true, my usual goal isn’t to sound smart, but to get the information across in the best way.<\/p>\n

I use contractions when I write practically anything, because people are comfortable with them. Rather than make them feel they’re being lectured, I want them to feel that they’re being helped or informed.<\/p>\n

The latest installment of the Chicago Manual of Style’s Q & A<\/a> includes this line:<\/p>\n

“A complete avoidance of contractions is common only in the most formal writing (think wedding invitations, or speeches before the queen).”<\/p>\n

I’m sending that to everyone who asks me to turn “it’s” into “it is.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a running battle with people who ask me to write something for them, then ask that I take out all the contractions. For some reason, a lot of people think that formal language is smart language. So they eliminate contractions, or choose big, impersonal words (like “utilize”) instead of little friendly words (like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-languagelit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}