Re: Apostrophe

[Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Hope this is useful to those who expressed an interest.

The following is precis of the letter/article.

Re ?Charlies Dead (or is he?)?, Liz Hale in the March issue of the
Communicator

I must first admit to getting slightly peeved when I see the apostrophe
mis-used/not used.

I feel that this mis-use is symptomatic of a general lowering of standards
in written English.  I wasn?t one of those who did English at college, just
the basics to ?O? level at school where basic grammar and punctuation were
taught.  Some say that as English is a ?living language? and that we don?t
have to worry about such things as grammar, spelling, punctuation and so on
as long as the meaning is clear.  However, as in many things, appearances
are important - try going for an office job in scruffy jeans!  In the same
way, text which is neatly presented and easily understood should always be
the aim.

I see the apostrophe, along with other punctuation marks, as the ?roadsigns
and road markings? of the language, designed to make it easier to read and
understand.  When driving from A to B, roadsigns (STOP, speed limits,
whites lines etc.) are not necessary but they generally ease the trip, even
if some people tend to ignore them!  Because they are ignored or not
understood by some does not in any way make them redundant.

I agree that I can read her examples and make sense of them but I do not
want to have to read something twice or even three times before the meaning
is clear.  Proper use of punctuation, including the apostrophe, makes for
clarity.  It is especially important in technical documentation which, if
misunderstood, could have quite catastrophic results.

A final point, her use of the example ?...Canary Islands...? and ?...Easter
Islands...? would seem to imply that geography was better taught at her
school than English as she assumes that everyone knows that one is singular
and the other plural!



Damien Braniff, MISTC





PS  For those who wish to know when the apostrophe should be used there is
a brief description, put together by a colleague at work, on the following
page.  It is also covered in the excellent book ?Full Marks? by John
Kirkman.

                 The apostrophe - an easy guide to its use



The poor old misunderstood apostrophe, how it is abused.  It is, however, a
useful friend to have and quite easy to use correctly if you consider a few
simple rules.



When you should use it

For possession:

e.g. if you are describing a phone that rings too loud...

     Phil's phone should be turned down. The phone belongs to Phil.

Note...  If the word ends in s, you have option of dropping the last "s".

     Leeds' latest defeat was at the hands of Manchester United, or

     Leeds's latest defeat was at the hands of Manchester United.



There is one exception (this is English after all!). When something belongs
to  it,  use  its  not it's. e.g. The dog was unhappy, its tail had dropped
off.



When concatenating two words

e.g. You are is shortened to you're.

     "You are coming with me," becomes "you're coming with me."

The apostrophe is always placed where the letters have been removed.

e.g.  Did  not,  becomes didn't; the not loses the "o", so is replaced with
the apostrophe.


When not to use it

For plurals; ever!  If there's ambiguity, word the sentence differently.

The  plural of  PCB is PCBs, not PCB's.  PCB's means something belongs to a
PCB.  The plural of PMR is PMRs, not PMR's. Otherwise plural and possession
are  written  the same way, which, especially when you're reading technical
documents that you don't fully understand, can be very confusing.

One common mistake

Your and you're.

Your, is for possession; it's your book.  The book belongs to you.

You're  is  short  for you are. "Your coming with me" is often seen, and is
always wrong!





(c) The apostrophe police 1996 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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