Do We Have to Avoid Contractions in Academic Writing?
Your instructor may have marked your paper in red for you to remove contractions from your paper and this may seem kind of useless to do; however, your instructor may have some valid reasons for not using contractions in your academic essays.
Part of writing well is meeting expectations of readers. avoiding contractions in academic writing is one of these expectations. Academic writing expects that you communicate using a dialect of English known as Standard Written English or SWE.
Part of writing in SWE is "not us[ing] the informalities of everyday speech" (Aaron, 2016). While contractions are commonplace in everyday conversation and informal writing, they are generally considered one of these informalities not suitable for academic essays. Although spelling out contractions is one of the easier style corrections we can do, sometimes this can be tricky so it is worth reviewing.
What Are Contractions?
Contractions are shortened forms of words or phrases created by omitting certain letters and replacing them with an apostrophe. If you have ever been confused about where to put the apostrophe in a contraction, the rule is to put the apostrophe where the letters used to be.
Common examples include:
- Can’t (cannot)
- Don’t (do not)
- It’s (it is or it has)
- They’re (they are)
- Should've (should have)
While contractions are not wrong and can be helpful in many instances, they can undermine the formality expected in academic writing.
Why Avoid Contractions in Academic Writing?
Readers' Expectation:
When readers choose an academic work to read, they expect that the work meets their expectations on how it is presented. If the work does not adhere to SWE, then they might feel that the information is untrustworthy because the author is not presenting the information in what would be expected in academia. They might assume that the author is not well-researched or that the author does not pay attention to detail. This might make the reader question the message within the work.
Clarity:
Full forms of words are clearer and more precise. Some contractions represent dialects that not everyone is familiar with, such as ain't and ya'll. Clarity is especially important in academic writing, where precision and exactness are paramount and we want to be understood by everyone who might read our work.
Tone:
Maintaining a formal tone is essential in academic writing. Contractions can inadvertently introduce a conversational tone, which may not be appropriate for the seriousness of many topics within scholarly work.
Strategies to Avoid Contractions
Use Full Forms: The simplest way to avoid contractions is to write out the full forms of words when you are drafting. However, you may find that contractions still sneak into your work.
Proofread and Revise: During the revision process, specifically look for contractions and replace them with their full forms. You can use the Find function to look for apostrophes as one method to help you spot them.
Use Grammar Tools: Utilizing grammar-checking tools can help you identify contractions and suggest replacements, especially if your work is long. You may need to tell your checker that you do not want contractions in your work for it to mark these, though.
Examples of Replacing Contractions
Let’s look at some sentences with some of the more confusing contractions and how to revise them for academic writing:
Original: You can’t rely solely on one source.
Revised: You cannot rely solely on one source.
-- This can be tricky because many students want to write can not instead of the one word
Original: Ya'll cannot rely solely on one source.
Revised: One cannot rely solely on one source.
--This can be tricky because if you corrected it the same as the example above, then you fixed the contraction, but you also used 2nd person, which is something that should also be avoided in academic writing. For more information, check out my previous post on the topic.
Original: He should've asked for help.
Revised: He should have asked for help.
--This can be tricky because when many students are writing, they might write "should of" because of how it sounds.
Original: She's been researching this topic for years.
Revised: She has been researching this topic for years.
--This may be tricky because with we have an 's, this could be shorted for has or is. We only know from the context, which one it is.
Original: It's often cited that taking vitamins is not important if the diet is balanced.
Revised: It is often cited that taking vitamins is not important if the diet is balanced.
--This may be tricky because its and it's are often confused. It's is the contraction, and its is the possessive.
Practice Makes Perfect
You might find that if you are a fast drafter, you'll have more contractions in your writing than if you are a planner. This is OK either way, but with some practice, you may find that you can adjust the language you use in the drafting process as well. Whether you work to fix this as your draft or after, it does not really matter if the end result is the same.
Final Tips
- Consistency: Ensure consistency throughout your paper. If you decide to avoid contractions, maintain this rule across your entire work.
- Formality Check: After writing your paper, do a formality check to replace any contractions and maintain a professional tone.
- Peer Review: Have a peer or mentor review your paper for any contractions you might have missed.
By avoiding contractions, you are adhering to the expectations of SWE and can enhance the formality and clarity of your academic writing. For more tips and advice on improving your writing skills, check out this post on comma splices. Happy writing!
I hope you found this helpful for you. Feel free to leave a comment or contact me with any questions. Good luck with your essays!