Bobyoungbalt - stick with your formal writing when writing formally, critics be damned. A more casual voice is certainly appropriate for e-mail and chat-room purposes, but then, those aren't formal writings.

I can't imagine the hue and cry which would arise if I used slang, contractions, or idioms in my chief work products. But they are not pedantic; I am a torchbearer for the plain-English-in-legal-writing movement.