Premise

We see contractions everywhere, everyday. In less formal situations (like chatting with our friends), we tend to use them more. And in more formal situations (like writing to our boss or professor), we tend to avoid them.

The general guidance is pretty straightforward:

For our purposes, we’ll discuss using contractions in different writing situations. 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. 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. It’s a subtle difference, but still has an effect. And it’s the basic premise that you can follow in most situations.

More Advanced Functions

Consider as well that you can combine techniques (like italicizing keywords/phrases) to further emphasize and distinguish specific tones. Just look at this sentences:

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 (e.g., 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 every 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 awkward—maybe too informal for a professional email. It’s a perfect example that just because you can doesn’t always mean you should. And so how then should you decide which ones to choose? Well, typically shorter contractions (e.g., “I’m” for “I am”) are less jarring than longer ones (e.g., “It’ll” for “it will”). The latter sounds a lot less formal since it’s a longer contraction that omits more letters, so typically a good rule is that those longer contractions 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 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 AI 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 throughout your work.
• 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.
• What about in academic papers, like for school? It’s a great question, and as always, the best answer is to simply ask your instructor if they haven’t already specified guidance about this sort of thing somewhere in the assignment description. Some academic papers are actually less formal than others, so looking at samples (as always too) is a great place to check!