Vy Blog: National Punctuation Day

February 2008

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I hope this gets us somewhere, but I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

I was reading the paper Saturday and learned in an article that today is National Punctuation Day. Jeff Rubin, a writer in California, created the day out of pure frustration with the idiots that add apostrophes to words for no reason, about which I recently blogged.

I know I'm anal about this, but it's good to know I'm not alone (count in George Carlin, for one). Good writing and speaking obviously reflects well on you. To anyone who says, "Who cares if I punctuate as long as communication is made?", I would ask this: Why bother caring about your clothes as long as you're covered up? You look dumb that way, too.

So, since the apostrophe is my latest peeve, here's a capture from Rubin's site (which is good) about rules for apostrophes (not apostrophe's, you moron):

Apostrophe

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 woman’s; or to indicate plurals of abbreviations and symbols, as in several M.D.’s, p’s. But do NOT use apostrophes for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals.

Forming possessives of nouns

Add ’s to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s):
The owner’s car; James’s hat

Add ’s to the plural forms that do not end in -s:
The children’s game; the geese’s honking

Add ’ to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:
Houses’ roofs; friends’ letters

Add ’s to the end of compound words:
My brother-in-law’s money

Add ’s to the last noun to show joint possession of an object:
Todd and Anne’s apartment

Its, It's

If it doesn't translate to "it is," then use "its" instead of "it's."

The team celebrated its victory.
It's a victory for the team.

Forming plurals of lowercase letters

Apostrophes are used to form plurals of letters that appear in lowercase. The rule appears to be more typographical than grammatical, e.g. “three ps” versus “three p’s.” To form the plural of a lowercase letter, place ’s after the letter.

There is no need for apostrophes indicating a plural on capitalized letters, numbers, and symbols (though some editors, teachers, and professors still prefer them).

p’s and q’s = a phrase indicating politeness.
There are two Macintosh G4s currently being used.
The 1960s = the years in a decade from 1960 to 1969.

Plurals

FIGURES: Add s: The custom began in the 1920s. The airline has two 747s. Temperatures will be in the low 20s. There were five size 7s.

SINGLE LETTERS: Use ’s: He brought home a report card with four A’s and two B’s.

MULTIPLE LETTERS: Add s: She knows her ABCs. I gave him five IOUs. Four VIPs were there.