Writing It Right: Is That Apostrophe Correct? Who's To Say?
by Carolynn Carey
I considered titling this article “Is That Apostrophe Correct? Whose to Say?” just to see how many people would notice the error, but I found that I simply couldn’t do it. What if just the title of the article appeared with my name under it and people thought I didn’t know the different between the contraction “who’s” and the possessive “whose”? Well, I’d be downright embarrassed, that’s what.
If fact, any writer who doesn’t know the difference between possessives and contractions (such as its and it’s or whose and who’s) should make a point of learning. And if you know the difference, be careful to use those words correctly. I’m often amazed by the frequency with which people write it’s as a possessive when I’m sure they know that it’s is a contraction.
Of course, it’s easy to write it’s as a possessive because we’re so accustomed to using apostrophes to indicate possession. And in most cases, we know the correct method: the boy’s hat; the girls’ ribbons; the babies’ strollers; the women’s chairs.
Simple enough, really, until we come to words that end in the letter s. No longer can we say that one rule fits all because even the experts do not agree. Should it be Keats’ poems or Keats’s poems? Is it James’s book or James’ book? Personally, I prefer to use an apostrophe plus another s if the second s would be pronounced but—and this is an important but—many publishers simplify by adding just the apostrophe no matter what the situation.
For example, in my contemporary entitled Falling for Dallas, I had written Dallas’s as a possessive throughout but had to change to Dallas’ each time his name appeared as a possessive because that is the preferred style of Avalon Books. The same was true in my Regency, Compromising Situations, where I used the surname Mellis and had to change all appearances of Mellis’s to Mellis’. I still prefer the apostrophe plus the s in both cases but I had to follow the publishers’ styles.
For a further discussion of the apostrophe, read my article entitled “The Versatile Apostrophe.”
Copyright © Carolynn Carey.
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