Premise

For most of us, using contractions in our writing seems like a pretty obvious convention. When we communicate in less formal situations (like with our friends), we tend to use them more. And in more formal situations (like with our boss or professor), we tend to avoid them.

The general guidance is pretty straightforward:

But obviously, there’s nuance here as well. You wouldn’t necessarily (whether in an informal or formal situation) avoid or use all of the contractions possible in either case respectively. So how do you decide when and to what degree to employ them?

Examples

Simple Framework

Just consider these two phrasings:

I am not a friend of his.

I’m not a friend of his.

Depending upon the context, the first might sound a lot more emphatic (and therefore, serious too) than the second version. This is because you’re taking the time via the separate wording of “I am” to essentially emphasize the statement. Makes sense, and it’s the basic premise that you can follow in most situations—whether in terms of the larger context or on a sentence-by-sentence basis.

More Advanced Functions

Consider too that you can combine techniques (like italicizing keywords/phrases) to further emphasize and distinguish specific tones. Just look at this sentence as we add these implementations:

I’m not going to do that. (less formal/serious)

I am not going to do that. (more formal/emphatic)

I am not going to do that. (further emphasized)

If you read these each out loud slowly, you can see how the tonal emphasis changes. And much of this emphasis depends on the context and situation of what exactly is being said. But you can continue to play around with these types of technique combinations to really see how they can affect your tone.

Case-By-Case Basis

Okay, so we’ve established that, in general, you can either implement or avoid contractions based on the situation (i.e., formal vs. informal). Particularly, in formal situations, you can’t go wrong with avoiding them entirely. The problem more comes with less formal situations because even then you probably wouldn’t use them in every single case. Just take a look at the following paragraph from an email to my boss:

I’ve received your email about the meeting for next Tuesday, and I’m very excited to attend. I’m sure it will be a very fruitful session for not only me but our new faculty as well. I think it would definitely be helpful if we arrive early, as there is sure to be some confusion by some attendees where to sign in. Please let me know what you think!

Here, there’s some usage of contractions—but not fully. Let’s look at it now if we apply contractions in ever single case:

I’ve received your email about the meeting for next Tuesday, and I’m very excited to attend. I’m sure it’ll be a very fruitful session for not only me but our new faculty as well. I think it’d definitely be helpful if we arrive early, as there’s sure to be some confusion by some attendees where to sign in. Please let me know what you think!

As you can see, this version seems…well, a little odd, and maybe too informal for a professional email. This is because just because you can doesn’t always mean you should. And so how then should you decide? Well, typically shorter contractions (e.g., I’m) are less jarring than longer ones (e.g., “It’ll”). The latter sounds a lot less formal since it’s a longer contraction, so typically a good rule is that those implementations should be saved for increasingly informal situations.

When in doubt, use your discretion and ask how individual lines sound when you read them out loud. If you’re not sure, default to avoiding the contraction.

Further Considerations

• You want to avoid using AI to automate contractions for a couple of reasons. Yes, telling a program to make my piece sound more formal or less formal by removing or adding contractions respectively can absolutely accomplish this implementation. But doing so misses out on targeted subtly. I.e., there may be specific instances where you deem it necessary to implement or avoid contractions for key instances of tonal emphasis—in addition to the overall voice of your work. So while this might be a good tool for practicing how tone manifests, it’s not as great of an idea to have it replace your usage of this type of element.
• As we’ve already said, if you’re not sure what’s appropriate, typically err on the side of avoiding contractions. Again, like much else here, this is a general rule rather than hard guidance. So take it with a proverbial grain of salt. Always consider the full context of what you’re trying to express—and to whom.