3.9 Become an awesome apostrophe aficionado
One of the three uses of apostrophes is to contract two words together into a single word.
For example, instead of writing …
Do not contract words when you write your research paper: it is considered colloquial and conversational.
you could write …
Don’t contract words when you write your research paper: it’s considered colloquial and conversational.
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It’s rare that you’d need to use apostrophes to contract two words together into a single word in writing about your research (or giving a formal speech about it).
This use of contracted words is reserved for informal writing (and casual conversations). We deliberately use contracted words in the written and spoken material in this online training to help create the feeling that we’re having a casual conversation with you. Is it working?
In contrast, writing up research into a paper is formal business. Always write both words out in full, instead of contracting them together with an apostrophe between them.