Copywriting Tip: Banish "No Contractions" Rule
In the past few months, I’ve had more than one client insist that I remove all contractions from the Web copy I’ve written for them.
I use contractions because I had read somewhere (long ago) that contractions make copy — especially Web copy — easier to read. Contractions make copy flow better, and they make copy sound natural.
After going through yet another project and removing contractions, I did a bit of research to determine why some clients were so adverse to them.
According to Jennifer Alvey at the Word Solutions blog, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers were trained to use contractions only in “casual” writing.
This makes sense to me. I’ve had more than one client over the years come back to me with, “My daughter in college proofread your copy and made the following changes . . . .”
The changes always entail rendering my zippy marketing copy into stuffy, dull, awkward prose that adheres to the rules of standard college English. UGH.
According Roy Jacobsen, in his article, “Contractions and How Not to Abuse Them,” eliminating contractions is a huge mistake for this very reason.
Jacobsen, quoting William Zinsser, author of Writing Well, gives a number of guidelines on when to use contractions. Bottom line: consider your audience, your tone and what you’re writing.
For us marketing types, using contractions is A-ok — especially because we’re usually compelling people to take some sort of action. As Zinsser points out, because we tend to skim content (especially online), we often miss the second word when a contraction is spelled out — i.e. we read “would not” as “would.”
Hence, contractions improve reader comprehension, which in turn increases conversions.
Well-written, grammatically correct copy never goes out of style. Formal academic English, however, has no place in marketing copy.
Do you agree or disagree? And, do you push back when clients ask that you remove contractions?
Edited to add that Copyblogger also has a great article relating to this topic: 7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School.
About the author: Dianna Huff
A B2B web marketing expert, Dianna helps B2B companies grow through SEO, marketing writing, and social media. A frequent speaker, Dianna has been quoted in numerous blogs, books, and articles; her client list includes large and small B2B companies across the U.S. Follow her on Twitter @diannahuff. To receive her e-course on creating great B2B marketing content, subscribe to her newsletter, The MarCom Strategist.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Dianna,
I’ve felt your pain on many occassions, and yes, I push back. Most people don’t converse in formal, academic English. So why would they want to write that way when the objective is to encourage interaction? Thanks for the interesting research.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:17 am
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October 28th, 2009 at 8:31 am
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October 28th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Dianna,
I find this issue also comes up with regards to third person vs.second person and the use of sentance fragments–for special effect.
When people comment on these techniques, I push back in the sense that I explain the reasons for the choice. Often I can get them to come around once they understand the rationale–but if they don’t, well it is their piece.
Cheryl
October 28th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Cheryl,
Yes, I sometimes run into the third person vs. second person problem, too. And I agree, it is the client’s copy and if he/she wants to change it, of course I’ll do it, but it always makes me sigh in frustration.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:48 am
I find the key is explaining to a client that copy is a conversation, not a formal piece of writing – so it has to mirror the way we all talk, not the way we think we should write.
But the issue goes beyond contractions – it’s also about eliminating jargon and corporate speak: ‘make sure’ is better than ‘ensure’, ‘ok’ is better than ‘endorse’ etc. I think it was Gary Halbert who said you have to join the conversation that’s going on in the customer’s head…and that starts with replicating their speech or thought patterns.
October 29th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Couldn’t agree more.
Contractions make copy more conversational and much easier to read.
I use them ALL the time and it’s one of the things I really push back on if clients are averse to it.
Copy needs to be more like speech.
Bravo.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Diana,
Great post! Thanks for the link to my article, and for adding another voice saying “Yes” to contractions (in certain contexts).
To me, you have to answer to the question “What tone (conversational, formal, academic, etc.) will be most effective for this audience, purpose, and medium?” In my experience, a conversational tone (with contractions, sentence fragments, and 1st and 2nd person) works great much of the time.
Regarding Jennifer Alvey’s article about what Boomers and GenXers were trained to do, how much do you want to bet that they were also trained to not end sentences with prepositions, to not begin them with “And…,” “Because…,” or “Hopefully,” and to not split infinitives? (Split infinitives? Whoops!)
October 30th, 2009 at 7:08 am
@James and @Doug — Completely agree with you. One thing I do push back on is when clients want to remove you” from the copy in order to use the formal third person, which drives me insane.
@Roy — Yep, I agree about Boomers and GenXers not wanting to end sentences with prepositions. I still have a hard time with that one. I can always hear my high school English teacher saying, “It’s behind the preposition!” in response to a question such as, “Where’s such and such at?” D’oh!
However, I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t start a sentence with “and” or “but”!
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:15 am
Yeah — the ‘you’ one is a big one too.
I wrote a post about exactly that a while back:
http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk/2008/04/04/the-power-of-you-the-2nd-person-singular-in-b2b-copywriting/
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:14 am
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September 28th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
[...] why shouldn’t they be used when we are trying to elicit responses from our readers? In her blog, Dianna Huff suggests that contractions are okay to use, particularly in marketing situations where we are [...]