Pity the apostrophe. No piece of punctuation gets abused more than this little guy. You’ve probably seen these mistakes in various places, from writing assignments to billboards. Poor grammarians, perhaps confused by the comma magically floating above the line, start shoving apostrophe’s in front every “s” they can get their hand’s on, whether the word’s in question are plural’s or possessive’s.
Luckily, a few brave souls have dedicated their lives (or at least a chunk of cyberspace) to the abolition of apostrophe abuse. The Apostrophe Protection Society gives a rundown on how to — and most importantly, how not to –use the apostrophe. The society dictates there are only three things to remember about apostrophes: use them to denote possession, contractions, and NEVER for plurals.
The Apostrphe Protection Society win this fight alone. Please teach your students not to misuse the apostrophe. If you do, the world — and its English papers, menus and street signs — will be better for it. -BILL FERRIS
The Apostrophe Protection Society
Related Stuff:
English Fale Blog: Wear Grammer and Spelling Goes Bad
Its not what you say, but “how” you say it: The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
