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Old 01-04-2011, 10:22 AM   #18
John Carroll
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gudy View Post
I can only speak for myself here. I have no problem with contractions, although things like "I'd've" and "wouldn't've", disrupt my reading flow a bit because they are relatively uncommon.

What bugs me, personally, far more than contractions are people who can't keep their tenses straight or constantly mix up their homophones. In my opinion, if you can't keep things like they're/their/there, here/hear, or sole/soul straight, and you can't be bothered to employ an editor who can, you have no business inflicting your writing on the world.
I do avoid the most complicated contractions. As far as the homophones, I'm excellent at catching those during editing. It's terrible trying to read them on facebook though, especially from teenagers. Sometimes I think I'm going to explode. I believe Homophones happen to writers most when they write while tired.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft Word catches most instances of 'its' and I would imagine it does on other programs as well, so there's very little reason why it should be an issue for writers.
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