I've edited almost fifty full-length nonfiction books and novels, as well as numerous short stories, blog posts, query letters, book proposals and even Hollywood biographies. Time and time again, I see the same mistakes by first-time and seasoned writers. These include the misuse of apostrophes, an inability to identify a run-on sentence, and overreliance on an imperfect spell-check. In a three-part series, I will cover each one of these issues, starting today with apostrophes.

Lynne Truss, beloved author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, has said that "To those who care about punctuation, a sentence such as ‘Thank God its Friday' (without the apostrophe) rouses feelings not only of despair but of violence." Seriously, the apostrophe is used incorrectly so often that it's becoming an endangered species. When do we need an apostrophe? To denote possession or to form a contraction.

Possession means that something belongs to me, you, or someone else. Thus, if you want to write about President Obama's speech, use an apostrophe. Likewise if you're talking about his policies or his daughters. You'll even require the apostrophe if you say that you've been invited to the Obama's, because we infer the missing word "house" in that statement.

We also want to use an apostrophe with contractions, such as it's, which stands for "it is," as opposed to "its," which is a possessive adjective and pronoun. Using them both together, we have "It's a perfect day for the beach. Don't forget to bring the sunscreen, because of its importance in blocking ultraviolet rays."

Writers often confuse plurals with possessives, and consequently refer to "CD's" and "DVD's." Wrong! There's no need for an apostrophe there, nor is it proper to say, "The 1980's." "1980s" is the correct form unless you want to abbreviate it to refer to the ‘80s, in which case it's appropriate to use the apostrophe to stand in for the missing letters "19."

You never want to use an apostrophe toward the end of a noun that ends in "s." For example, "Jack went to the store to buy potato chip's" should be rewritten as "Jack went to the store to buy potato chips," because chips is simply the plural of chip.

However, you do want an apostrophe after a proper name that ends in "s" since once again, this refers to possession. "Jill decided to borrow Silas's laptop for her long trip." There's debate as to whether the second "s" is required; The Chicago Manual of Style prefers it, but other style guides disagree and say that it's fine to say, "Silas' laptop." It's an individual choice. The important thing is to be consistent. If you start out adding a second "s", do so throughout your article or manuscript.

And remember that there is an exception for Jesus -- more often than not, we will drop the second "s" when we write, "for Jesus' sake." Lynne Truss and Chicago part ways over how to refer to the disciples of Jesus; the former advocates a continuation of the simple apostrophe, and the latter recommends the use of the second "s" (e.g., Jesus's disciples).

If this seems complicated, it's not. Grammar is like math. Once committed to memory, it becomes second nature, much like tying your shoes. But if you have any doubts about when to use what, write down a short list of stumbling blocks that you have with apostrophes, and keep it on top of your desk. Better safe than sorry!

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com