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	<title>Comments on: Don&#8217;t Fear Contractions: They&#8217;re More Important Than You Think</title>
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		<title>By: Shlemiel</title>
		<link>http://www.matthewjordancochran.com/279/dont-fear-contractions#comment-94</link>
		<dc:creator>Shlemiel</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 29 May 2011 04:10:48 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>In a fit of procrastiation I stumbled accross this article that articulated and defended what had always only been a sheepish and tacit resistance to the blanket moratorium on contractions in formal writing. Well done, sir, and thank you.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In a fit of procrastiation I stumbled accross this article that articulated and defended what had always only been a sheepish and tacit resistance to the blanket moratorium on contractions in formal writing. Well done, sir, and thank you.</p>
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		<title>By: MJC</title>
		<link>http://www.matthewjordancochran.com/279/dont-fear-contractions#comment-56</link>
		<dc:creator>MJC</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:49:27 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>&lt;a href=&quot;#comment-55&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;@TmB &lt;/a&gt;  Good observation.  When you have a choice of contractions, the most effective use will depend on the context and your objective.  For example, if you&#039;re responding to someone who argues about national policy by way of personal attacks rather than direct reasoning, you might emphasize that &lt;strong&gt;you&lt;/strong&gt; are the better person by saying something like, &quot;&lt;strong&gt;I&#039;ll&lt;/strong&gt; not impugn the President&#039;s character.&quot;  

It seems to me that this arrangement emphasizes the &lt;em&gt;Who&lt;/em&gt; instead of the &lt;em&gt;Whether&lt;/em&gt; (which obviously depends on, but is different than, the &lt;em&gt;What&lt;/em&gt;).  The alternative contraction (&lt;strong&gt;I won&#039;t&lt;/strong&gt;) would seem to make the sentence sound more like a general disclaimer than a statement suggesting a difference between its speaker and someone else.  

However, you appear to suggest, alluding to what I said in the original post, that someone might just &lt;em&gt;miss&lt;/em&gt;  the word &quot;not.&quot;  But in this case, I think the sentence is unlikely to be misread, because the distinctness of the leading contraction bleeds over onto the specifier that follows it.

As an aside, I don&#039;t think the contractions &lt;strong&gt; I don&#039;t&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;I&#039;d not&lt;/strong&gt; are at all interchangeable, as the first means &quot;I do not&quot; (indicative) while the second means &quot;I &lt;u&gt;would&lt;/u&gt; not&quot; (subjunctive).</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="#comment-55" rel="nofollow">@TmB </a>  Good observation.  When you have a choice of contractions, the most effective use will depend on the context and your objective.  For example, if you&#8217;re responding to someone who argues about national policy by way of personal attacks rather than direct reasoning, you might emphasize that <strong>you</strong> are the better person by saying something like, &#8220;<strong>I&#8217;ll</strong> not impugn the President&#8217;s character.&#8221;  </p>
<p>It seems to me that this arrangement emphasizes the <em>Who</em> instead of the <em>Whether</em> (which obviously depends on, but is different than, the <em>What</em>).  The alternative contraction (<strong>I won&#8217;t</strong>) would seem to make the sentence sound more like a general disclaimer than a statement suggesting a difference between its speaker and someone else.  </p>
<p>However, you appear to suggest, alluding to what I said in the original post, that someone might just <em>miss</em>  the word &#8220;not.&#8221;  But in this case, I think the sentence is unlikely to be misread, because the distinctness of the leading contraction bleeds over onto the specifier that follows it.</p>
<p>As an aside, I don&#8217;t think the contractions <strong> I don&#8217;t</strong> and <strong>I&#8217;d not</strong> are at all interchangeable, as the first means &#8220;I do not&#8221; (indicative) while the second means &#8220;I <u>would</u> not&#8221; (subjunctive).</p>
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		<title>By: TmB</title>
		<link>http://www.matthewjordancochran.com/279/dont-fear-contractions#comment-55</link>
		<dc:creator>TmB</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:44:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.matthewjordancochran.com/?p=279#comment-55</guid>
		<description>What bothers me is when a sentence has three words that could form two separate contractions.  I find myself irritated each time I notice that somebody has formed what I believe to be the wrong contraction; but it also has me wondering whether I&#039;m the one with the backwards contractions.  

The example that immediately comes to mind is &quot;I will not.&quot;  I have always spoken/written this as &quot;I won&#039;t&quot; but I have noticed that some people write &quot;I&#039;ll not.&quot;  I suppose this example also works for &quot;I do not&quot; (I don&#039;t v. I&#039;d not).  

How do your rules of emphasis and persuasion come into play in this situation?  Surely these &quot;alternate&quot; contractions create tremendous potential for a misreading . . .</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What bothers me is when a sentence has three words that could form two separate contractions.  I find myself irritated each time I notice that somebody has formed what I believe to be the wrong contraction; but it also has me wondering whether I&#8217;m the one with the backwards contractions.  </p>
<p>The example that immediately comes to mind is &#8220;I will not.&#8221;  I have always spoken/written this as &#8220;I won&#8217;t&#8221; but I have noticed that some people write &#8220;I&#8217;ll not.&#8221;  I suppose this example also works for &#8220;I do not&#8221; (I don&#8217;t v. I&#8217;d not).  </p>
<p>How do your rules of emphasis and persuasion come into play in this situation?  Surely these &#8220;alternate&#8221; contractions create tremendous potential for a misreading . . .</p>
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