Chris Taylor could not be more wrong.  Contractions are a valid,
fundamental part of the language.  I know of no authority on "good writing"
that would impose an outright ban.  Indeed, all of the sources I consulted
agree with Diane -- total avoidance leaves one's prose feeling stilted.  I
don't believe the purpose of exhibit labels is to impress our visitors with
our command of the language.  But if it were, then adherence to an
unsupportable superstition would actually be evidence that we did NOT know
how to write.

(What's next: banning terminal prepositions and split infinitives?  Fie!)

The first rule is: know thy audience.  On which, more below.

The second: clarity above all else.

The third rule, as Diane rightly notes, is to write your labels so they may
be read aloud.  All the great label writers say this.  Indeed, the last
step in label writing should be a gut-check: read it out loud, and see if
you trip over anything.  And contractions are a vital part of natural
speech.  "Always" may have been a bit extreme. But I will not amend it to
anything less than "always when it sounds natural -- and re-read your
labels to find as many 'natural' occassions as possible."

Whenever I've studied a foreign language, I've always found contractions to
be helpful shortcuts.  I acknowledge that I may be atypical.

One of my fondest rules of thumb runs: If you try to be all things to all
people, you'll end up being nothing to no one.  If we rewrite a label to
make it slightly easier for one person, but end up making it slightly more
difficult for 20 others, what have we accomplished?

If an exhibit is specifically for an ESL audience, then yes, one ought to
follow ESL guidelines.  I suspect this is fairly rare.  More common is the
exhibit for a general audience which may attract a substantial minority
with special needs.  We must expend the effort to address those needs,
without sacrificing the mainstream.  Bilingual labels, special tours,
pamphlets -- there are many ways to offer an equivalent experience.

(I may be out of step with the rest of society, but when I travel
internationally, it never occurs to me that my host country should abandon
their cuture.)

-- Eugene Dillenburg
Exhibit Developer / Writer / Smart-Ass
Science Museum of Minnesota

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