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Do you often use contractions when you speak? Contractions are words like it’s, I’m, they’re, we’ll, couldn’t, etc. (standing for the phrases it is, I am, they are, we will, could not, etc.). You probably quickly learned to use contractions in spoken English.

You may have been told that contractions are slang or informal language. That’s not really true (at least for the USA). If you go to a formal presentation at a conference, the speaker will almost always use contractions. Contractions occur in most forms of writing, too. If you’re writing a blog or e-mail in English, you should use contractions normally. If you’re writing a regular e-mail to your co-worker, professor, or friend, contractions are 100% fine to use. If an e-mail is extremely formal, such as proposing a new contract for a business, you might not use contractions. If you’re writing an essay or paper for school, you will probably not be allowed to use contractions. Here are some examples of e-mails using contractions:

Hi, Naomi–

I haven’t received the report from XYZ company yet, so I won’t be able to send you the data today. I hope that’s all right. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do.

– Clarissa

Dear Dr. Lee,

Thanks for sending us the website about the museum exhibition. It sounds like something we shouldn’t miss, so I was wondering if I could e-mail the other students and arrange an informal trip. I’d be willing to drive, since I’ve recently gotten a new minivan. Would that be all right with you?

Thanks again!

– Clarissa

These e-mails are neither formal nor casual, but they use contractions in order to sound natural and friendly.

Caution: “Reduced speech” is different from contractions. You should not use reduced speech in business or school writing. Reduced speech includes words and phrases like gonna, woulda, hafta, ‘em, etc. We frequently use these when we speak, but they are considered too casual for most forms of writing. (It’s OK to use these in e-mail to your close friends, of course, especially if your friends also use reduced speech in writing.)

Tip: If you work for a company where the main language is English, look at some e-mail and memos from the important people at the company. If they use contractions, and you don’t, you should probably start to use contractions. Why? Well, when most people in a group use contractions and one person doesn’t, it makes that person look unfriendly, awkward, and tense. (Unless you’re the boss, of course!)

In the USA, most companies and universities have their own “culture,” and it’s important to pay attention to that culture. When you read a book on American manners or business, you should always remember that your company’s (or school’s) culture is more important than any rule given in the book. I often laugh at books on American manners and behavior, because their advice is sometimes not true for everyone–the writer came from the East Coast, but I live and work on the West Coast (where we do things differently). Sometimes the writer’s advice is old-fashioned.

This is why, even if your books or teachers told you that contractions were bad, you should think about using them more often. Remember, always check what you’ve learned against what you see in the real world. If the real world seems different from the rules you learned, you should ask somebody to explain. If you can’t ask anybody, then it’s up to you to decide which way is right for you.

Next time, we’ll talk about some things that are NOT okay in business or school e-mail. If you have questions, leave me a comment or e-mail me at clarissa ( at ) readableblog ( dot ) com. What do you want to know about?

P. S. Send is a good book on current e-mail etiquette. It’s written at an advanced level, for native speakers, but it’s a very useful book.

Remember the previous entry about PostCrossing? Well, how about sending more than just a postcard? That’s the idea behind Gimme Your Stuff. You put together a small package of interesting things from where you live, and trade it by mail with someone in a faraway country. For example, I might send a small box of Californian stuff to someone in Italy, and the person in Italy would send a small box of Italian stuff to me. Right now, there are over 500 participants from 41 countries. (The website and most of the participants use English to communicate; there are also lots of participants in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.)

In order to participate, you need to have a website or blog page where you can post a description of the kind of thing you’d like to send and receive. Then you’ll add your information to the Gimme Your Stuff site, and choose someone to trade with. (Here’s their How To page of instructions.)

Check out the website for fun photos of some of the “stuff” that has been sent across the world. People send magazines, postcards, jewelry, candy, toys, stickers, yarn, pasta, recipes, handbags, and even things they’ve made themselves. Many of the exchangers seem to have made friends with each other, too. Here’s a great chance for you to make an English-speaking friend somewhere in the world, and share your culture with someone else, too.

(If you don’t currently live in your home country, you can still participate, of course. A mix of local things and whatever you can find that originates in your home country would be great!)

People who teach English writing have learned that it is important for writers to have an audience. In other words, if you just write an essay and give it to your teacher, it’s not too interesting for you. You’re probably going to have more fun and learn more if you know several people will read what you have written. By writing a letter to somebody, publishing a blog, or having an e-mail penpal, your writing becomes real communication. It’s not just pointless homework anymore.

Well, this kind of motivation works on me, too! I want to write here on Readable Blog regularly, but I don’t know if anyone is reading it. I can see that my pages have been viewed, of course, but that doesn’t tell me if you think this blog is useful or interesting. If you do think this blog is useful, especially if you are an English learner, I would really appreciate your feedback!

Comments on entries are very motivating for me. I really love to hear from you, even if you just say “Oh, that’s interesting!” or “I think I’ll try it.” I especially love it if you try something I have posted about and then tell me what you think. (For example, if you read a book that I recommended, come back and tell everyone in a comment. Tell me even if you didn’t like it … then I can do better in the future.)

One other thing you can do for me is to fill out this survey. The questions are for English-language-learners only! If you are studying English, please fill out the poll. It should only take a few minutes. If you have any questions about it, please leave a comment on this post. I’d really appreciate it!

Thanks again!

P. S. If you read this blog by e-mail, through RSS, etc., you may need to come to readableblog.com in order to fill out the survey.

Today I found a good article about how to do research for university-level papers. Most undergraduates and nearly all graduate students in American universities will write several long “research papers” before they graduate. These papers are big projects, with two important parts: the research and the writing.

Most students are so worried about the writing part that they don’t think about the research part very much. The research is not original research–you don’t do any experiments, dig up any bones, or run any tests. This is “library research.” Many students don’t do well on this part of the paper, because they don’t know where to start, choose sources that are not high-level, or get lost and spend too much time trying to find sources.

Dustin Wax, at Lifehack.org, has written a good article on “10 Steps Toward Better Research.” He mentions that it’s important to talk to your professor and to librarians to help you with your topic. I would add that it’s really important to talk to your professor at the beginning, when you’re trying to figure out your topic. Discussions by either e-mail or in person are fine, depending on your and your professor’s preferences.

Another article that I read recently said that American students at American universities and international students and American universities talk to their professors differently. American students tended to e-mail their professors specific questions, such as “Do you think the question of (blah blah blah) would be a good paper topic? Or would it be better for me to focus more on (blah blah blah)?” On the other hand, international students asked more general questions such as “What kind of topic should I pick?”

Although the international students probably thought of their questions as more polite, very general questions are difficult for professors to answer over e-mail. The result was that the American students received their answers quickly, but it took a long time for the international students and the professors to finish their e-mail conversations. Because of this, the American students had more time to work on their papers.

The more general question would be fine for an in-person talk with the professor. However, the international students in the article also had problems setting up a time by e-mail to visit their professor in person. The American students checked the office hours on the syllabus, and then e-mailed the professor to say things like “I can’t come during your office hours, but do you have any free time Tuesday or Thursday afternoons? I could come in any time between 2 PM and 4 PM.” This lets the professor respond with a specific time, such as “How about Thursday at 3 PM?” or suggest an alternate such as “I’m busy then, but we could meet 15 minutes before class on Wednesday.”

The international students again were more general, asking questions such as “When can I go to your office?” Again, this probably seemed more polite to the students than giving a suggestion. The result, though, was that it took many e-mails and more time for the professor and the international student to arrange their meeting.

This is not to say that it’s always better to be more direct. Also, the local way of doing things (American, in this case) is not always the best way to do something. Still, it’s a good idea to be aware of how things like this are done wherever you are, whether it’s the US, Canada, Australia, etc. Even if you feel a little uncomfortable using the local style, it might be able to help you succeed in school.

Here’s a photo of a spinner rack of postcards in Berlin, taken by Shawndra and Simon. I think I like picking out postcards more than I like writing them! I have a bad habit of buying postcards and then forgetting to mail them. If you’re interested in writing a postcard through PostCrossing, you might want to know how to write a polite and friendly postcard in English. It’s easy! There’s not much space on the card, so you can only write a few lines. With PostCrossing, you would be writing a postcard to a stranger. In that case, you could write something like the below example. Of course, the underlined sections would depend on you.

Dear Hans Schmidt,

My name is Clarissa Ryan. I am an English teacher and I love to read and surf the web. I live in Fremont, California, USA, which is a medium-sized city about 1 hour away from San Francisco. The image on this postcard is a photo of the San Francisco Bay viewed from the Fremont hills. The best thing about living in Fremont is that it is a very diverse city, so you can easily eat food from India, Afghanistan, China, Japan, Mexico, the Phillipines, etc.

I would love to hear back from you. My return address is: 123 Fake St., Fremont CA 94538, USA.

Here is another example, written for you by my roommate, Jenn:

Dear Bob O’Reilly,
I found this post card and had to send it to someone. It was much too pretty to keep. I hope that you are well and will send me a postcard back.
Sincerely,
Jenn W.
123 Fake St.
Fremont, CA 94538
USA

(Thanks, Jenn!)

Anyway, I hope you’ll give PostCrossing a try.

Postcrossing is a free system for helping strangers exchange postcards. You register with the site. Then you request an address to send a postcard to. The site gives you an address and an ID number. You write and mail the postcard, with the ID on it. The person who receives the card enters your ID on the website. Then your address is given to the next person who requests an address, so you should receive a postcard soon. By trading postcards in English with people from all over the world, you get practice reading and writing. You might even make some friends.

Some people have scanned and uploaded the images from the postcards they’ve received on Flickr. You can even see a map of the postcards that are currently being sent across the globe. It’s really amazing when you see it like that!

According to the website, there are

• 24886 users in 143 countries
• 4399 males, 16496 females; 3863 prefer not to say
• 578528 postcards received
• 30447 postcards traveling at this moment

It’s free to register, but of course you’ll have to pay for postage. I’ll have to see if I have any international postcard stamps!

I enjoy reading travel guides, newspaper articles, and blogs about places I would like to visit and places I have visited or lived in myself. I like reading other people’s points of view about where I live. Sometimes they mention things that I didn’t notice. Other times I totally disagree with them. Sometimes I disagree so strongly that I write the author.

Try looking online for stories about your hometown or other places you have lived. The stories may be formal or conversational in style. Look for one that you can read easily enough. Of course, you’ll already know a lot of the words! If you spot an important mistake or if you have useful information to add, you should write a polite e-mail or post a polite comment to the author.

Here is an imaginary note I might send to someone who wrote an article about Fayetteville, the town where I went to college–

Dear Mr. Smith,

However, one place that I think should not be overlooked is Wilson Park, which includes the Wilson Park Castle. This is a miniature castle that visitors can walk around in. It’s handmade from stone, glass, and concrete. It looks like something from “The Lord of the Rings!” It’s a really surprising thing to find in a quiet place like Fayetteville. I hope you will add this to your recommendations. Thanks again for the article!

Basically, I start off with a compliment and end with a compliment or thank-you. I mention my connection to the place so the author knows why I’m writing. Then I add my suggestion or correction.

If you send in a correction such as the location of a restaurant, the correct name of a local food, etc., the author will probably be happy to receive it, if you’re nice about it. On the other hand, if you’re upset, it’s still good to be polite. If I were upset by something in an article, I might have said–

However, I object to your description of Fayetteville as a “country hick town.” In fact, although Fayetteville is small and surrounded by countryside, it is relatively cultured. For example, Fayetteville has its own symphony and an arts center which hosts world-famous performers–from rock stars to classical violinists. Fayetteville’s university has a respected creative writing program. Former president Bill Clinton used to teach at the university. The atmosphere on Dickson Street, which includes an excellent coffeehouse, a wonderful used book store, a New Age shop, art galleries, and even a safe-sex shop, is not the atmosphere of a “country hick town.” It’s true that Fayetteville is not as diverse or cosmopolitan as the San Francisco Bay Area, where I currently live, but I still feel that it’s unfair to depict Fayetteville as totally unsophisticated.

Today, the San Francisco Chronicle’s website has a series about Seoul, South Korea. There’s the main article about Seoul, an article about food, and a gallery ofphotos. Are you from Seoul? What do you think about the article?

Check out the Chronicle’s Travel page, or the Travel sections of other newspapers, for stories about other places, too.

Here are three web-based comic strip makers:

• StripGenerator

has cool black and white graphics

• ToonDoo

is very cartoony

• Comeeko

lets you use your own photos

All three are free, though you need to register. You don’t have to draw anything, just click and drag! StripGenerator and ToonDoo let you choose from their graphics to tell your story. Comeeko lets you use photos from your digital camera.

This is a fun way to practice writing in English, and you can share your completed comic strips with your friends. Here’s a quick one I made at StripGenerator! You can post them in your blog, too. (Warning: Some of the other users’ comics are crude or stupid.)

Here’s a silly one I made just now at Comeeko, which has lots of special effects and other things you can add:

I am at the annual conference for TESOL. TESOL is an international organization for teachers who teach ESL/EFL. Many of the teachers and those who are giving presentations are also non-native speakers. It’s a really fun, informative, international event.

Today I heard about an ESL class who wrote restaurant reviews and put them on the web. You can read the reviews at the page, Seattle Area Restaurant Reviews. These reviews are interesting for other readers, partly because the students wrote about restaurants serving food from their home countries.

You can do this too. You can start your own blog, your own website, or use a public reviewing service. If you live in the US, etc., you can write your reviews at Yelp, a popular site. For other countries, just type the name of your country, city, or region into a search engine along with “restaurant reviews.” You can also search for the name of area along with “food blog.”

If you live in a country with few English speakers, the foreigners in your country will really appreciate being able to read about restaurants in English. You will be helping international visitors and residents enjoy living in your country. (If you do this, please send me a link to it!)

Here are some other places where you can read reviews:

• Bento.com Tokyo and Kansai Food (Reviews: Tokyo, Osaka)
• Taiwan Restaurant Reviews from Taipei Fun (Reviews: Northern Taiwan)
• Ono Kine Grindz (Blog: Hawaii)
• Smokefree Japan (Blog: Nonsmoking restaurants in Japan)