Use Contractions... Please!

Contractions are fine. Use them!

This is a true story. I once was all set to give a business-writing presentation at a Buffalo-area company. The HR person e-mailed me to say she wasn't comfortable with contractions, and that I should refrain from advocating them.

Really?

She wrote, "Paul, everything is fine, but I'm not comfortable with contractions...."

Ha! She wrote "I'm"! She used a contraction in a sentence meant to tell me she wasn't comfortable with contractions. The irony was as thick as cheesecake.

Folks, contractions are fine. They're natural. They're conversational. They're easily understood.

As always, who your target audience is will dictate whether or to what extent you'll use contractions. More formal tone usually minimizes their use; a more casual, friendly and direct approach tends to find them more plentiful.

But who could possibly be offended by "The bill won't have much of a chance of passage," vs. "The bill will not have much of a chance of passage." I mean, c'mon!

And virtually no one except a preacher uses "Let us," rather than "Let's."

I think you get the picture. Give yourself permission to use contractions. Have the courage and good sense to write simply, naturally, clearly.

Write like you speak, more or less.