Amy Hatmaker earned her BA at the University of Houston-Victoria and is pursuing graduate studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where she is researching the role of women in education from the Reconstruction era through the mid-twentieth century.  She has worked as a writing tutor at the Academic Center for two years.  Amy also really hates contractions.

A contraction is formed when two words are shortened into one and an apostrophe is added to replace the omitted letter or letters: are not = aren’t, do not = don’t  (Harbrace College Handbook, 13^th ed.).  Because Americans’ language use as a whole has become increasingly informal, contractions are creeping their way into writing.   Generally, contractions are used in situations where informal language is appropriate: think of them as the jeans and t-shirt of the grammar world.   Spelling out the words, on the other hand, is like a business suit—formal, with associations of authority.

Contractions should not be used in formal academic writing, and, in formal business writing, it may be better to avoid contractions as well.  For example, contractions in research papers, essays, or formal reports may lessen your authoritative voice because they make you sound informal.

If the writing situation allows for a conversational style of writing, contractions are not a problem.  For example, a letter to a friend, a memo to colleagues in which you want to sound unassuming, or a handy tip sheet.  In these writing situations, the difference is that your intent is not to have an authoritative voice, but to sound as if you are having a casual conversation with the intended audience.  Ultimately, you should consider your audience and situation--are you writing to a jeans and t-shirt kind of crowd or a business suit bunch?

Here are some examples of the two styles. 

In this first one, the words that have the potential to be contracted are bolded.

Ex. It would be very hard to approach this work in any other manner; at the same time, both chapters, the second chapter in particular, are highly quantitative making it somewhat tedious.  Further, he does not always discuss the relevance of all of the data, just what is needed for his argument. 

The example above is from a book review.  It's an academic piece of work. If the highlighted words were contracted, it would take away from the academic tone of the writing and possibly be a distraction to the reader.

Consider the difference with this one:

Ex.  While it'll be an inconvenience for a while, the new parking garage will mean that all employees will have their own assigned parking space.  You won’t have to wonder where you’ll park every day when you come to work.

This is an example from an inter-office memo.  The writer is trying to soften the blow of inconveniencing the staff for a few months by using a conversational rather than formal tone. In this situation using a contraction is perfectly acceptable.