really been a while since we made the last contact.

[keannu]

Would it be better to say like the underlined in email when you want to emphasize the absence of contact?
Or would "It's been a long time since we've corresponded. "We haven't been in contact for a while.​" be better?
============================

How are you? It's really been a while since we made the last contact.
I'm sorry to contact you only by email when it would be appropriate to meet and talk to you in person.

 

[GoesStation]

Or would "It's been a long time since we've corresponded. "We haven't been in contact for a while.​" be better?

Either of those options is better than the quoted text.

Leave out the final period ("full stop" in BrE) in a quoted sentence when the sentence it's quoted in continues after the quotation. Convert it into a comma if a comma is natural in the sentence containing the quotation.