Purely Technical Question: Contraction Usage February 28, 2006
Posted by fredcharles in Uncategorized.trackback
I have a purely technical question. When is it not okay to use contractions? I am looking at this purely from a fiction stand point. My characters use contractions during the dialogue segments. People generally talk in contrations, for example, most of say:
“I can’t do that.”
Instead of:
“I can not do that.”
But what about all of the non-dialogue text in your prose. If you are describing something, do you use contractions? To me, the rest of the text seems to be more formal than dialogue. I’ve checked the style manuals that I have and can’t seem to find any reference to this usage. Maybe I’m not looking in the right spots.
An example of what I’m talking about would be something like this:
He couldn’t write a blog post today because he was too busy.
or
He could not write a blog post today because he was too busy.
Which usage would you use in your fiction?
i think it depends on fomalities, your style, the story, etc,
personally i think contractions are something some lazy american invented, i mean really, how much are you saving. ??? you’re or you are. it’s the difference between once space and one letter. i think fast typers invented it.
also, when to use them on the end of a word, for example fast typers’, or fast typer’s. that confuses me. i’m at about a 4th grade level on my punctuation judging from what my son brings home for homework that I can’t help him on. i just noticed , i’m a huge contraction user!!!
I tend to be a huge contraction user as well, where my fiction is concerned.
It depends on the character and setting I guess.
If the character uses slang—yeah go for the contractions. If he is of the formal type go for the longer one. As for the ominiscient author—it’s basically up to you.
I’d go with couldn’t.
;D
I use contractions all the time, and find it distacting if I’m reading something that doesn’t use them at all. I guess it depends how formal you want to be, but I try to be as informal as I can.
I agree that it seems to be dependent upon the situation/what you’re writing. Like just then with “you’re” – in something informal like a blog post or comment or a character’s dialogue, contractions seem natural. But I tend to go without them in the rest of my narrative, unless said narrative is from the perspective of someone more informal.
Just think of Attack of the Clones, with the very stilted, contraction-less dialogue between Anakin and Padme – not natural at all for two young people!
As far as I know, only the most formal writing requires that you not use contractions.
I don’t use contractions all the time because sometimes it’s easier to make emphasis without them. For example, there’s quite a difference between, “What’s that?” and “What is that?” The second one is more expressive without having had to italicize or capitalize words.
I think you just have to experiment each time you come across a contraction. How does the phrase sound with and without the contraction?
Hola faretaste
mekodinosad
Very useful and informative blog. Recommended for all to see.
http://medsdrugs.blogspot.com/
can you please tell me what is contraction?