Guide to Writing Well: Proper Apostrophe Usage for Everyone

What is wrong with the above statement? It should be obvious: unnecessary apostrophes.

Apostrophes are generally used to make something possessive. In "Have you read any good writer's today", the possessive form of writers is incorrect because you are not referring to an object owned by the writers. You are only making writer plural. The same applies to author's and story's. It should be:

Have you read any good writers today? Have there been any authors that impressed you lately? How are their stories?

Apostrophes and Acronyms
Another thing that often confuses people is making acronyms (A word [e.g. NATO, radar, or snafu] formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term.)plural.

Correct:
NATO's new policy on international trade will boost the economy of many nations.

In this case, you are referring to something that belongs to NATO, not more than one NATO, so you want it to be possessive, not plural. However, in the next examples, the proper form is plural, not possessive.

Incorrect:
John has four hundred CD's.
Pamela got 1480 on her SAT's.

Correct:
John has four hundred CDs.
Pamela got 1480 on her SATs.

The reason CD's and SAT's is incorrect is because the apostrophe transforms them into possessives, not plurals. It would be difficult for compact discs or tests to own anything. When in doubt, ask yourself this: Is it appropriate for the object to which I'm adding an apostrophe to have ownership of another item, or is it more proper to have more than one of said item? Apostrophes are never used to make something plural.

Apostrophes as Placeholders
An extremely common mistake with apostrophes often occurs when writing years numerically.

Incorrect:
Have you seen "That 70's Show" yet?
I wish I could go back to the 1840's.

Correct:
Have you seen "That '70s Show" yet?
I wish I could go back to the 1840s.

Again, the apostrophe makes the years possessive, while the addition of just an S makes them plural.

Note: The apostrophe before '70s is a placeholder for 19, which is the general purpose of apostrophes when using them to join words as contractions. So, you can infer that apostrophes are only used to make items possessive, or as placeholders for missing letters, numbers, etc.

Examples:

I'm goin' fishin' with Pa today. (You would use this type of writing to indicate region or perhaps education level. You wouldn't use it in formal writing. Due to its casual nature, this would only be appropriate for dialogue or first-person narrative. Even then, you should use such occurrences sparingly.)

You wouldn't want to do that. (wouldn't-->would not)

That's all right. (that's-->that is)Its vs. it's
Probably the most confusing possessive form is its vs. it's. The confusion results because this is one of the few times you don't need an apostrophe to make a word possessive. In fact, adding an apostrophe completely changes the meaning of the word.

Incorrect:
The dog carried it's bowl everywhere.

Correct:
The dog carried its bowl everywhere.

The second version is correct because its is one of the exceptions to the possessive rule. By adding an apostrophe to its, you have made it a contraction of it is. Read the sentence like this:

The dog carried it is bowl everywhere.

That doesn't make sense, does it? An easy way to remember is to try both methods. Read it's as it is. If it is doesn't sound right in the sentence, you need its.

Other Exceptions:
These are other exceptions to the possessive apostrophe rule. Adding an apostrophe to any of these words makes them incorrect:
Theirs
Yours
Ours
Hers
His

Summation
As long as your remember apostrophes are used only to make items possessive, or to act as placeholders, you will master their usage easily enough. Once you memorize the exceptions to the possessive rule, that aspect of apostrophe usage will clarify. Remember that apostrophes are never used to make something plural.