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Occasionally Chuck will ask me to proof some of the work that he and his partners produce. Most recently was a newsletter they’re printing for one of their Clients. The Client had supplied the copy, so I didn’t want to be too picky, but I did find a couple of nits that I couldn’t let hang unpicked. And, since I’ve had my head buried in grammar books lately – my nitpicker is well honed. One of those little beggars concerned the use of apostrophes. I had Chuck on the phone and started to explain why the newsletter should be corrected: “When indicating possessives, the singular noun ends in <i>‘s</i>, even if the person’s name ends in ‘s.’ For example, if Charles has a book it is ‘Charles’s book’.” “But I thought that if a name ended in “s” it was okay to stick the apostrophe at the end of the name,” Chuck challenged. “Well,” I dug out my newly purchased (with the Barnes and Noble gift certificates Chuck got me for Christmas) copy of Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman, “According to my book,” page 196-7 to be exact, “both ways are accepted, but I'm giving you proper convention and you should not go against convention without a darned good reason for doing so.” “The Client wrote it.” “That’s a darn good reason. But here’s what the book says, there are only a few cases where convention dictates that the possessive s must be dropped, such as, Achilles’ heel, Euripides’ plays…” “Euripides’ plays?” He interrupts. “Yes, Euripides’ plays!” “Well, You rippa deez plays I’m a gonna busta you face!” Chuck can’t control his laughter; he’s so tickled by his own wit. And that’s as far as we got on that grammar lesson.
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