Why Some Contractions Are OK in Writing While Others Are Not

If you’ve ever been asked to check a student’s formal writing, you may have noticed they used reductions (like “gotta” or “wanna”) in essays or texting language (like “thx” and “ur”) in formal emails.

Today, we’ll look at why they do this and how we can explain why certain contractions are acceptable in writing while others are not.

Why Students Do This

Due to our long-term exposure to the English language, texting language doesn’t affect our formal communications. We know when to say “kthxbye” and when to say “Looking forward to meeting you again.” At some point, we learned to distinguish between formal and informal English. 

However, our students aren’t there yet. Their weaker sense of the language means that they might see someone on the internet write “thx” and assume that it’s standard and acceptable everywhere.

In addition, many also don’t realize there’s difference between formal and informal contractions. 

What Are Formal and Informal Contractions?

Formal contractions are the contractions students learn in English class. These include:

• I’m (“I am”)
• Let’s (“let us”)
• There’s (“there is”)
• Don’t (“do not“)
• Should’ve (“should have“)

On the other hand, informal contractions are usually reductions like these: 

• Wanna (“want to“)
• Gonna (“going to“)
• Gotta (“got to“)
• Kinda (“kind of“)
• Gimme (“give me“)

To help students see the difference, you can point out that formal contractions usually contain apostrophes (‘) while informal ones don’t.

Now that the difference is clear, let’s look at when it’s appropriate to use these different types of contractions.

When Should Students Use Contractions in Writing?

The answer to this question depends on which students we’re talking about. For example, we might want to advise beginners to avoid all contractions for the time being (unless they’re texting).

But if we’re teaching higher-level students, we can paint a more complex picture:

1. Informal contractions are only used in the most casual writing. For example, in text messages between friends, writing “Wanna check out that new restaurant?” is fine. However, using these contractions in other contexts (e.g. writing “I’m gonna be late to class” to a professor) could be seen as sloppy or even disrespectful.
2. Formal contractions can be used in interpersonal writing (e.g. emails) but should still be avoided in presentational writing (e.g. school papers, essays on standardized tests).

The terms “interpersonal” and “presentational” are used by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) to refer to different modes of communication.

• Interpersonal writing is when the writer is “in conversation” with the reader. Emails are interpersonal: they bounce back and forth between two or more people. Blogs are often written in an interpersonal style  — like the writer is talking to their readers.
• Presentational writing is when the writer “presents” something to the reader. Examples include academic papers, résumés, and news articles. 

But as the saying goes, “Show, don’t (just) tell.” So try to show students both kinds of writing and ask them to spot contractions. Here are some ideas:

• For interpersonal writing, you can show students some formal emails. Ask them what kinds of contractions they find. They’ll most likely identify some formal contractions (e.g. “I’m writing to inform you…”) but no informal ones.
• For presentational writing, you can pick an article from The New York Times or some other news agency and search for apostrophes (‘) using the Control+F function (Command+F on Macs). Students will quickly notice that apostrophes only appear in cases of possession (“the country’s capital”) but not in contractions, because there aren’t any. (There will be certain exceptions, but you can also explore those together.)

👋 That’s it for now!

We hope you found the distinction between formal and informal contractions helpful to your teaching. 

Keep in mind that whenever we teach rules, it’s good to remind students that they’re not set in stone. For example, some informal contractions (e.g. “o’clock”) became formal over time. However, for the most part, these general rules should serve students well. 

Happy tutoring!