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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Contractions in self-help books
Hi. Should books like self-help books, or similarly self-improvement books, be written with contractions or without contractions? Would it be a matter of style?
Also, If they should be written with contractions, should we use contractions through out, without leaving some in their "full" word forms? For example, let's say there is a page in a self-improvement book, and on it are sentences with proper contractions. But there is the question "What will we do then?" on the page and it doesn't have the contraction for the words "What will," shouldn't we then shorten them to "What'll"?
Thank you for your help in advance.
Also, If they should be written with contractions, should we use contractions through out, without leaving some in their "full" word forms? For example, let's say there is a page in a self-improvement book, and on it are sentences with proper contractions. But there is the question "What will we do then?" on the page and it doesn't have the contraction for the words "What will," shouldn't we then shorten them to "What'll"?
Thank you for your help in advance.
Top answer
There's no right or wrong answer; it's a style decision. As I'm sure you know, the use of contractions makes the text feel more informal and chatty. However, some contractions are even more casual than others.
- There's no right or wrong answer; it's a style decision.
- As I'm sure you know, the use of contractions makes the text feel more informal and chatty.
- However, some contractions are even more casual than others.
- For example, "should've" and "could've" would seem too casual to me for almost any sort of book (except in directly quoted dialogue).
- Contractions such as "can't", "won't", "I'm", etc.
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1 Answers
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There's no right or wrong answer; it's a style decision. As I'm sure you know, the use of contractions makes the text feel more informal and chatty. However, some contractions are even more casual than others. For example, "should've" and "could've" would seem too casual to me for almost any sort of book (except in directly quoted dialogue). Contractions such as "can't", "won't", "I'm", etc. are m
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