Blame it on Shakespear and co. Punctuation marks were developed primarlity to aid actors with their scripts

Apostrophe. How to use the apostrophe

 

How to use the apostrophe – or not bother?

 

More than anything else, I get asked by putative copywriters – how do I use the apostrophe? Does it even matter?

 

In just ten minutes I will show you:

 

• Why do we even have the apostrophe?
• Why the apostrophe is important to copywriters
• An instant/painless strategy to improve your apostrophe rating a little
• A more rigorous (but still easy) strategy – getting the apostrophe right 60% of the time
• How to get it right 90% of the time (bit more work)
• The biggest single error people make. Avoid it!

 

 

Why do we have the apostrophe?

 

It’s nothing to do with grammar. It has everything to do with punctuation.

 

Punctuation is just a set of marks/squiggles invented by printers to make reading easier.

 

It all began around the time of Shakespeare, and most early ‘punctuation marks’ – comma, colon, semi colon, full stop (period for Americans) – were just a way play writers could indicated to actors when to take a breath, a longer breath, or a real pause. It made it easier to read a script.

 

What has that got to do with writing in the 21st Century?

 

Two reasons.

 

1. As copywriters, we should always be striving to make it easier for people to read our copy
2. Older readers (who are often our audience – managing directors, for example) believe that anyone who can’t use basic punctuation properly must be ignorant. Disagree if you like, but as a copywriter, your first objective is to display your client’s work in the best possible light. Making the client look ignorant to 30% of the population (a particularly influential part of the client’s audience) is a major disservice.

 

 

Too many apostrophies

 

Not understanding the apostrophe, people feel obliged to scatter them around their copy almost every time they come to the letter ‘S’. There are significantly more misused apostrophies than correctly used ones.

 

So, if you want a lazy way out, I would suggest not using them at all. You will still look ignorant, but less so than the apostrophe abusers!

 

 

Apostrophe rule 1 - Stop selling banana's!

 

The apostrophe is never used to indicate more than one item (plural)

 

So

 

• the plural of banana is not banana’s (it should simply be bananas – no apostrophe)
• When talking computers, more than one PC is not PC’s, it is PCs (no apostrophe)
• The library does not have lots of book's - it has lots of books

 

Misusing the apostrophy to make a plural is the biggest single mistake. So, get this simple lesson right and you should avoid 60% of apostrophe errors! Easy.

 

Apostrophies  are used to signify just one of two things:

 

Apostrophe rule 2 - missing letters

 

Abbreviation – dropping a few letters from a word, or joining two words together (and losing some letters in the process). It is often used when writing in ‘conversational’ English, rather than formal English.

 

For example:

 

• Did Not becomes abbreviated to didn’t
• Let us becomes abbreviated to let’s
• I have becomes I’ve
• That has becomes That’s
• The town Peterborough can be abreviated to Peterboro'

 

Strategy number two, then, is to use the apostrophe only for abbreviations. Again, dead easy.

 

Apostrophe rule 3 - Ownership

 

Ownership – This one is a lot more tricky.

 

In Old English, if King Ethelbert owned a book, he might write on it: Ethelbert, his book.

 

Over time that would become a much simpler Ethelbert’s book. The apostrophe simply shows it belongs to him.

 

It has become customary (to make it easier to read/interpret the written word) to show if there is more than one owner. That’s achieved by putting the apostrophe either before or after the ‘S’

 

 

• The boy’s books (one boy)
• The boys’ books (more than one boy)

 

• The nation’s strategy (one nation)
• The nations’ strategy (more than one nation, sharing a strategy)

 

Common howlers (including its and it's)

 

Life isn't easy. I said that the apostrophe is often used to denote ownership (the boy’s book). Some words already denote ownership – his, her, their etc

 

There are two very similar looking words  - its and it’s

 

• Its is an ownership word
• It’s is an abbreviation of it is

 

For example, we may say of a nation Its culture is very interesting  (the culture is owned by the nation, so no need for an apostrophe there).

 

Second example: we may say Do not go in there, it’s dangerous (an abbreviation of it is dangerous).

 

 

More confusion

 

You're is an abbreviation (eg You are late)         Your is ownership (eg Your book is open)

Who's is an abbreviation (eg Who is there?)       Whose is ownership (eg Whose book is this?)

 

 

Sorry if that was boring. Perhaps time to adopt strategy one!