Jay Heuman's note that contractions can complicate communication for
non-English speakers is well worth considering.  While I would not forbid the
use of contractions, I would caution against the advice to seek every
opportunity to use them, which I consider an extreme position, suggesting
instead that they be used sparingly.  Interestingly, I hesitated about
whether to write "wouldn't" or "would not," but decided that it's (oops!)
more natural for me to avoid contractions in written text, while giving them
full reign in spoken communication.  I always avoid contractions, however,
when speaking to a person who is not as fluent in English as I am (or think I
am).  There is no point in risking misunderstanding unncessarily.  In this
age of international tourism--a trend which, I believe, most museum people
hope to encourage--it makes sense to avoid language forms or style which
might be difficult to interpret by those whose primary language is not
English.  So I think a compromise is in order: use contractions--but
sparingly.

Incidentally, for an example of contractions run amok, see Peter Robb's
biography "M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio."  I suppose the conceit of
calling Caravaggio "M" is something one could learn to love (although it is
never fully justified), but it, combined with Robb's tendency to coin bizarre
compound contractions such as "M'd've" (meaning "M would have") actually
weakens his thesis by making him sound self-consciously eccentric.  "M'd've"
is certainly an extreme example of "always looking for places to use
contractions."  So could we agree on at least one rule?  Never, never use
multiple contractions within a word in an exhibit label.

David Haberstich

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