Contractions

Broadcast journalists write in conversational style. They use contractions whenever appropriate, for example, “it’s” instead of “it is” and “he’ll” instead of “he will”.

There are two major exceptions:

• When the sentence has more impact if contractions are not used, as in “It will be his final resting place”.
• If by using contractions the meaning becomes not clear. Say the sentence aloud to yourself to make sure you are not creating ambiguity, or confusion. For instance, it is easy for a listener or viewer to confuse “Parliament’s decided” with the plural “Parliaments decided”.