Punctuation Problems: How to Avoid Apostrophe Abuse and Quotation Mark Quandaries
Punctuation Mistakes that Put a Twist in My Knickers
Apostrophe Abuse
Nothing is worse than apostrophe abuse, but you see it all the time. The most common way apostrophes are misused is in the creation of plurals. An apostrophe creates a contraction or a possessive, not a plural. For example, if you want to say that you have more than one worm, you would say, "I have worms," not "I have worm's." An apostrophe followed by an "s" indicates a possessive (ownership), such as "The girl's buck teeth are sexy." There is no need for the apostrophe to indicate a plural.
This applies to pluralizing mutliple letters, too. For example, it's ABCs, IOUs and VIPs. No apostrophes are needed. However, if it's a single letter that is plural, you'll need an apostrophe. (He received four F's on his report card.)
When you do use an apostrophe to indicate a possessive, put it in the right place. If the word you need to make possessive does not already have an "s" at the end, add an apostrophe before the "s." For example, "The monkey's butt is cute." That is an example of a singular noun made possessive. There is one monkey, and his butt is cute. But the same rule applies to plural nouns that don't end in "s." (The children's cooties are contagious.)
Now, if the word you need to make possessive already ends in an "s," as some singular words and many plural words do, you need to put the apostrophe after the existing "s." (The dogs' fleas are biting them.) This is an example of a plural possessive. You're talking about more than one dog's fleas. The same goes for singular proper names that end with an "s" such as "Charles" or "United States." You would write, "Charles' goats are stinky."
Quotation Mark Quandaries
Another common mistake is misplacing punctuation marks, such as commas, periods and question marks, when using quotation marks. The rule is to always-yes, always-put a period or a comma inside the quotation marks. I included examples of this in the paragraphs about apostrophe abuse above when I included commas and periods inside the quotation marks surrounding single letters. Yes, put a comma or period inside the quotation marks, even if the quotation marks surround only a single letter or word.
Other punctuation, including the dash, semicolon, question mark and exclamation point, go inside the quotation marks when they relate to the quoted word or phrase. They should be placed outside the quotation marks if they relate to the whole sentence. (The lady said, "Don't commit apostrophe abuse!" versus Do you think that is "apostrophe abuse"?)
For details or more rules on punctuation, refer to the Associated Press Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style. Happy punctuating!
Published by Amy Francisco
This professional writer is a kindergartener's mom, a teenager's stepmom, an old guy's wife, sister of five Brady-Bunch-like siblings, and the daughter of Web-surfing, Harley-riding retirees. View profile
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- The Associated Press Stylebook
- You don't need an apostrophe when making a word plural.
- When making a word possessive, put the apostrophe in the correct place.
- Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks ... always.
13 Comments
Post a CommentThank you Amy for this wonderuful informative and educative piece on this subject. We quite often knowingly or unknowingly use these signs in wrong places. Thanks for the illustration of some of these usage.
Man that's been bugging me. From a kid I thought a period and a comma went outside the quotation marks until somebody told me differently. Ever since then, a few years now, that's been bugging me. Conversely, from childhood I would write Charles's... and then I was told that was incorrect and that the correct way was Charles'. Glad to know both ways are correct and from where each of these "rules" originated from.
My pet peeve (as I grow older the number of these increases) is the use of quotation marks as an indication of emphasis. For example, signs that read: "NO" Smoking. My understanding from grammar school is that quotation marks may indicate a subjunctive mood and condition contrary to that expressed. So "'NO' Smoking" really means it's OK to light up.
Oh dear, I've been writing "ABC's". Oops!
Superdork, as to the spelling of "judgment," it can go either way according to Merriam Webster. The first spelling listed in the definition (the preferred spelling) is without the "e," so that's the one I use. But it's not incorrect to use the "e."
Superdork, ahhh, the serial comma...the subject of much debate always. Hee hee. I don't use the serial comma in simple series, because I've used AP style since college. We even used it, with a few exceptions, at the publication where I worked for 10 years. AP says that you should use commas to separate elements in a series, but not to put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series such as "red, white and blue." Your 10th-grade English teacher, however, told you to use it. And the Chicago Manual of Style, used by book publishers, says you should use it, too. So I guess it's a matter of what style you're following. On AC, we don't have to follow any certain style guide, so you can do whichever one you like. I'd just be consistent with it.
And another thing that bothers me, is the word judgement. With or without the "e" is acceptable, and it seems the more common spelling is without it. But I refuse to spell it that way. It's just wrong.
You know one that I'm confused about still, as I've seen it done both ways is this: when you have a horizontal list where each item is separated by a comma, is it right to have a comma before the "and" that precedes the last item in the list?
Patrick, thanks for checking out the article and for your comment. I was referring to Associated Press (AP) style in this article, and you are correct that that style is used by newspapers. However, I doublechecked the Chicago Manual of Style, which is used by book publishers and many others, too. It says this: "The possessive of a title or name is formed by adding 's ... This is so even when the word ends in a sibilant ... But if a word ends in a sibilant, it is acceptable(especially in journalism) to use a final apostrophe without the additional s." It seems we are both correct. Thanks for sending me to the books. I need to do that more often.
Good points, Amy, but I have to disagree with you on one of them. Charles's goat is considered correct, not Charles' goat. The use of only an apostrophe at the end for words and names ending in "s" is strictly newspaper style, which is far from perfect.
A good source of proper punctuation is the Reader's Digest, which is probably the most accurate publication around.