Down and out punctuation: the apostrophe

A friend shared this photo in twitter yesterday. Of course, the main issue is the furor over Waterstone's dropping the apostrophe from their name. For the record, I have no problem with their decision. But the dejected apostrophe has issues of overuse in other areas. Note that the sign lists two uses: contractions and possession. It does not list plurals.

Technical presenters often mess up acronyms. It is common to find sentences such as "SA's are now included in the product" or "New signs were put on all the ATM's." Apostrophes are for possession, and the SA and ATM in the sentences above are not possessing anything. The appropriate usage is "SAs" and "ATMs."

Detail below: skip if you get it already.

I found two web references that discuss the plural issue in detail. The articles are long, so I've included just the relevant portions. The key to both of these references is that an acronym is treated as a word and is made plural by adding an "s" to it. There are a few exceptions, but they are rare.

From the Guide to Grammar and Writing: When an abbreviation can be used to refer to a singular thing — a run batted in, a meal ready-to-eat, a prisoner of war — it's surely a good idea to form the plural by adding "s" to the abbreviation: RBIs, MREs, POWs.

Notice, furthermore, that we do not use an apostrophe to create plurals in the following:

• The 1890s in Europe are widely regarded as years of social decadence.
• I have prepared 1099s for the entire staff.
• Rosa and her brother have identical IQs, and they both have PhDs from Harvard.
• SAs will be supported in the next product release.

You can also use Wikipedia's Acronym page. Be warned that there is much more there than you'd think possible on such a small topic.

I have posted two grammar graphics recently. They seem to work, so please send me more when you find them. The images make the blog more fun and gives me clear topics.

Save grandma with a comma

This image speaks for itself.

Introducing Grammarly, my automated proofreader

What's wrong with the text below?

Bad Hyphen - when grammar goes bad, or how to see some humor and learn from the one's mistakes

This sentence appeared in my main blog, RandomRoutes, a few days ago. And what's wrong with it? I had a superfluous "the" near the end of the sentence. I did not catch it as I read it out loud to myself. And my proofreaders did not catch it.

How did I find it, you may ask? I tried Grammarly, the automated proofreader and your personal grammar coach. This was the first error it pointed out. I looked at the screen in disbelief, but it was true.

I do not agree with everything that Grammarly suggests. For example, it suggested that the line "my position was eliminated" should not have been in the passive voice. But I had intentionally used the passive voice. Many other items, including better word choice, were excellent suggestions.

I'll be using Grammarly user for my future blog posts.

Grammar Girl delivers a podcast to assist improvement-focused but potentially snarky commenters

I'll admit it. I have Grammar Girl on my podcast list. I decided to listen to it to help improve my grammar and spelling, as it can be poor at times. The fact that my son was a journalism major in college and is now a high school English teacher-in-waiting also caused me to want to stay a step ahead of his corrections and to learn a bit of theory behind the grammar.

This blog started as a way to raise awareness of the errors that I see on a daily basis. One of the issues is that pointing out errors, especially in long-lived public documents or presentations, can be as socially difficult as pointing out embarrassing items such as an unzipped fly or a major bit of food lodged in a stranger's front teeth.

I wrestle with this whenever I point issues out to people. I hope that these are appreciated, as I believe that we should all be focused on continuous improvement; most people don't even know when they have been habitually incorrect. And I appreciate every comment that I receive from others.

Please take a look at the transcript of the podcast or listen on your own; she has multiple links on the webpage. And you may want to join me in gently pointing out issues to people when it is appropriate.