Good points. I admit my initial post was written in haste, in response to two anti-contractionists. I have already amended my position to: use contractions whenever they sound more natural -- and since that is very, very often the case, one should always review one's labels and actively seek out places where contractions can be so used. As for whether a contraction ban amounts to the same level of Fowlerian "superstition" as those against split infinitives, terminal prepositions, initial conjunctions, etc., I would propose it is a matter of degree rather than of kind. Twisting a sentence out of shape to avoid ending with a preposition creates a much more unnatural construction -- and is thus a much greater sin -- than simply spelling out "do not." On the other hand, an experiment label that says "Let us see what happens when we mix the solutions" does, in my opinion, cross over into Unnecessarily Stilted territory. (And let us not forget, as I hinted before, that contractions reduce both word count and character count without sacrificing meaning -- about as close to an unalloyed plus as one finds in the label-writing world.) You ask: >I would debate, however, the assumption that an exhibit label needs to be >something that can be read aloud comfortably (as distinguished from text that >doesn't need to be read aloud comfortably, apparently). Where did that rule >come from? What is the practical rationale? It begins to sound like a >superstition to me. I am on the road and away from my references at the moment, but I believe something along these lines is mentioned in Serrell's book (in the appendix on 14 Helpful Research Findings, if I am not mistaken). I seem to remember Rand's Fish Tales making similar points. And it has been repeated at every workshop or other writing session I can recall. -- Eugene Dillenburg P.S.: On the digression of "it's" vs. "its," I believe it's a simple matter of the exception proving the rule. As children we are constantly told "apostrophe plus S equals possessive." So it only makes sense that the possessive of "it" should be "it's." It's not, of course. But this sort of honest mistake warrants a gentle reminder, and not the sort of tirades I have witnessed. (In preson, I mean; not on this list.) Misapplications of apostrophe-S in non-possessive situations are less forgiveable. (Years ago, Dave Barry wrote that the purpose of an apostrophe is to alert the reader that an "S" is coming next.) ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).