Don't fear the apostrophe

[MrScorpio]

>>The apostrophe, a punctuation mark which “floats above the line, symbolizing something missing in the text” (Battistella, 1999, p. 109), has been called “an unstable feature of written English” (Gasque, 1997, p. 203), “the step-child of English orthography” (Barfoot, 1991, p.121), and “an entirely insecure orthographic squiggle” (Barfoot, 1991, p. 133). Surely the apostrophe intends no harm; why then the controversy and apparent emotionalism surrounding it? One major motivation for investigating the apostrophe is simply because it is so often misused.<<

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:zex4XzOwkecJ:www.american.edu/tesol/wpkernodlecavella.pdf+%22the+history+of+the+apostrophe%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[frogbison]

1. It's ability to stump

so many people's psyches' is well known.

[MrScorpio]

3. It has the power to cloud men's minds

In a way, it's sort of like The Shadow

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Yes, happens a lot, I notice...

don't you mean "its ability"? :)

[madeline_con]

2. fear it?

my peeve is the use of it everywhere, it's not supposed to be used, like in shop windows, there are signs telling the consumers they sell:

clock's ring's

all item's on sale!

It drives me nuts!! :banghead:

[Radio_Lady]

4. Read the book "Woe Is I" -- terrific and funny information on --

that rascally punctuation!

[RebelOne]

11. Also, read "Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

The author has quite a hangup on the proper use of apostrophes.

[Redstone]

13. That is one of the funniest books I have ever read,

not just the funniest book about punctuation I've ever read.

Redstone

[Demit]

5. Perhaps we have an oversupply of them?

What gets me is people suddenly using them in plural nouns. Aargh!

[Art_from_Ark]

6. I think there is a distribution problem

Too many apostrophes are being misdirected to sites where there is merely a simple plural, while other orders are not being being sent to places where possessive nouns are begging for one. Still others are being misdelivered to possessive pro-noun addresses, which do not require them, because the distributor may be thinking that since they are PRO-nouns, they are professional nouns and thus require apostrophes to do their work.

[Demit]

8. LOL! Call Dispatch and have them reroute the excess ones coming to DU

[khashka]

7. I thought it was don't fear the reaper

But people don't get the difference between

the doctor's report
and
the doctors' report


Oh well, screw it. I'm gonna trash Elements Of Style and stick with Blue Oyster Cult.....

Khash.

[LynneSin]

10. I think it needs more cowbell

[Richardo]

12. Frank knew the power of the Apostrophe

At St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast - where they stole the margarine