the apostrophe posse by beachzz
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Description
The Apostrophe Posse
Years ago a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle began what he called the "Apostrophe Posse", to remind people about the appropriate use of such punctuation. Lately, I'm seeing signs that it needs to be revived. Coming from a family of English and Grammar people and adding to that 12 years of Catholic education, I know when to use those funny little marks. Apparently, fewer and fewer people these days are aware. Lest I sound like "back in my day" (omg, have I become my mom???), it's one of those things that I can't help but notice and want to correct.
So, without further adieu, let me share this:
apostrophe
[uh-pos-truh-fee]
noun
the sign ('), as used: to indicate the omission of one or more letters in a word, whether unpronounced, as in o'er for over, or pronounced, as in gov't for government; to indicate the possessive case, as in man's; or to indicate plurals of abbreviations and symbols, as in several M.D.'s, 3's. It is also used to indicate contractions, as in doesn't (do not), can't (cannot), etc, etc.
Now that we have the definition, why is the poor apostrophe so badly abused? It's often used just for plurals, as in road's, tree's, car's. When I see that I always ask, "the road's what, or the road is what"? Ok, nitpicky, I'm sure, but well, I can't help myself!! And there's the absence of the poor thing. The most common example I see is "your" for "you are", or (god help us) "their" for "they are".
As a kid in high school, we had to diagram sentences (and if you remember that, well, then, you're older than you probably want to admit!!). That could get tricky when it came to possession or contraction---as in "where the hell does that "is" go"???
I can't change how English is being taught (or NOT taught) in school anymore, but I can sure be driven crazy by its complete destruction!! The part that bothers me most is that these errors are so public, being used in major publications, on television and even in books I read.
So, bottom line----the Apostrophe Posse has room for lots of new members. Want to join?? Just watch for those sneaky little things--'''''''''-- and the absence of them. I've actually edited and red lined things I've gotten in the mail and sent them back, (anonymously, of course, coward that I am!!). There are (oh yeah, that's another one I see all the time---"there's" when "there are or there" is actually correct) no initiation fees, no meetings, no dues. Just watch for, and correct if you must, the use of my sweet little punctuation mark. It's all for the betterment of our grammatically correct world!!
ps
you know how renderosity somehow makes those crazy, weird symbols when you use punctuation? well, i just spent WAY too much time correcting all that--my eyes are crossing!!
Comments (13)
Wonderful! Are you aware of the work of Lynn Truss? She wrote a book called Eats Shoots and Leaves. It is right up your street and VERY funny too.
I tend to more and more make grammatical errors from lousy typing skills and just plan carelessness
I am s'potless' when it come's to apos'trophe's. (Notice how I knew to put it AFTER the double ss's in s'potless'.) (And notice how I know the period goe's INS'IDE the paren when the entire s'entence is contained within.) There i's one exception: I'm guilty of "there's" when I s'hould s'ay "there are." Other than that, I totally know where they s'hould go. :D (Or s'hould that be :'D?)
OK OK I,AM guilty I WILL TRY HARDER SORRY THAT WAS SURPOSED TO GO OVER THE '
Hurray! Some else who knows how to use the apostrophe correctly. Abuse is directly misleading communication. But, that's part of the point with modern education - it don' matta how ya write or speak. Well, the dumbing down of communication/language means dumbing down of people. The left has a lot to do with this destructiveness. I've seen how medical education has been wrecked at many medical schools by "problem based learning", developed as a means to lure academics to destroy medical education by evoking fancy false arguements. The underlying politic is one of cynicism, aimed at destroying society. Enough of my rant, but you get the idea. Keep up the good work! :-)
Whew! Its a good think I have spelling check ;) Aloha
I'm with you all the way, Marilyn; isn't it amazing how catholic school trained us? Maybe it should be required for everyone. I bought a book once that was so badly proofread that I marked the whole thing up in red and sent it back to the publisher, with an admonition to do better! Also I will not buy anything from anyone that has bad sign grammar, just my little way of trying to preserve the language. I'm afraid texting is sending it down that long slippery slope to spin off a whole new language... And Errol? FYI, spell check doesn't help if you have those words that sound alike but have different meanings!
Amen Marilyn. Newspaper, magazine and book editors used to be a ruthless bunch. It was a point of honor that no spelling or puctuation error should ever slip out for public consumption. Today if spell check doesn't catch it, we are confronted with multiple errors. And if I say it is a pane in the neck...spell check will never catch my error:) Thanks for the reminder!
At last, there is someone else, who has been driven crazy by bad grammar/spelling etc. Here I am, as an ex-German-educated, trying to learn the correct way, 'the English way' of spelling, when leaving comments ... and find so many here at the galleries, who are just lazy or careless or just don't know any better and it drives me up the wall! I must have a streak of OCD in me? If 'moi', as an outsider tries very hard to make sense of the written word, why oh why, can't the English educated try harder, in order to help us to improve? It's not easy being 'green' - help! Thank you Mrs. Lubner, for the lesson and for bringing this to my attention - please feel free to correct me, whenever ? - I am hungry for knowledge and constant learning. BB
Superb. I love stuff like this and I suspect you'd be a fantastic ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, as ESL/TEFL-sorts of people are required to know all of that punctuation and grammar stuff. This is well written and I agree with Andrea, you'd love the book Eats Shoots and Leaves. It's a brilliant and informative read! This is a brilliant and informative read. I love the idea that a language belongs to those who speak it, but even with that in mind, there must be particular rules in place, especially for languages such as English, as English is one of those languages in which the simplest punctuation error can completely change the meaning of the sentence itself. There's nothing worse than misinformation...spreading like a disease! This was a great, fun read. Oh, and I agree about "your" for "you're" and "their" for "they're." Such errors cause confusion to no end for Pavl and Victor, and well...I hate it when cute guys are utterly confused; one person's grammatical errors have the unfortunate effect of making Some non-native English speakers feel oddly inadequate or stupid, as they tend to assume that they're missing something elementary and terribly obvious. This touches on education, and I find it shameful that in terms of US-American Education, Native Speakers know less about the language than many who speak English as their third or fourth language! Oh, and the book Eats Shoots and Leaves is brilliant! I think you'd love it. Fantastic, informative (and fun) writing! I like this immensely.
In this day and age, TallPockets is just glad peeps can still READ.
Bravo, I love this! I’m definitely on the bandwagon with this issue. Even when phone texting I use correct capitalization and punctuation. I refuse to let my standards down, even if the younger generations are sadly unaware of how it should be done.
As a dyslexic – the apostrophe has always been in the wrong place for me.