Dark corners of the language: apostrophes
December 5th 2008 11:03
I had a friend, a woman of wit, charm and intelligence. She was about 50 years old when I met her, and she was successful in business and in life.
Three gym sessions a week, scrupulous attention to diet and natural good health left her looking and feeling a lot younger than her age. She was a vibrant, positive, powerful personality. In this world, there was only one thing she feared: apostrophes.
She had never learnt correct use of apostrophes, and many years earlier had simply decided to ignore them. In fact, she had decided to ignore capitalisation and commas as well, and her use of full points could be described as minimalist.
One evening, when our friendship had firmed and she had learned to trust me, she admitted in an emotional rush of disclosure that the eccentric writing style was just a ploy – a cover for the embarrassment of not knowing the rules of apostrophes.
“Would you teach me?” she asked. And I did. And within a few weeks she was, for the first time in decades, writing confidently in full sentences.
This post is the first of a series which will teach correct use of apostrophes. Several short posts will attempt to explain the rules in simple terms. Subsequent posts will present exercises which, like the spelling and redundancies exercises already appearing regularly in Bloggercises, aim to teach by repetition.
We promise it won't hurt too much. Apostrophes can be tricky devils, but with a little patience and resolve, the mystery will disappear, the devils will be banished, and you too will write with confidence.
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Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
Michaelie
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
lower case, no apostrophes, is an informal style intended to make the writer seem approachable
i guess you can afford to be lazy when spellcheck is so readily available . . . you can go from informal to formal with a few clicks of the mouse!
Comment by James Rickard
unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish
Check this out...
Comment by Chris Champion
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Money Whither
Morgan, approachability - and to a wider audience - can also be achieved by good writing
James, isn't the removal of colons from writing known as a colonoscopy?
Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
I'll leave it to you to explain. Good post.
Comment by Chris Champion
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Money Whither