Correct English Possessives

[Kriton Kyrimis]

DON:

> No it isn't. It's not remarked on very often, because it's such a common 
> error that it would be tedious to do so (which is the only objection I 
> have to the original post), but it's still an error. In English, the 
> apostrophe followed by S is ALWAYS used to indicate possessive case, 
> except with a PLURAL noun that ends in S. The fact that the error is 
> often seen even in professional publications is no more an indicator of 
> correctness than is the fact that even professionals often use the 
> plural noun "media" as if it were singular, an indicator that the 
> singular usage is correct.

This is what I was taught, too, until someone pointed me to Strunk and White's 
"The Elements of Style", which I understand is a standard reference. The book 
begins with a discussion on this very topic:


 > Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's.
 >
 > Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,
 >
 >   Charles's friend
 >   Burns's poems
 >   the witch's malice
 >
 > This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of 
the > Oxford University Press.
 >
 > Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is, the
 > possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for
 > righteousness' sake. But such forms as Achilles' heel, Moses' laws, Isis'
 > temple are commonly replaced by
 >
 >   the heel of Achilles
 >   the laws of Moses
 >   the temple of Isis
 >
 > The pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours, and oneself have no
 > apostrophe.


Note, that, according to
http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/osa/punctuation/?view=uk#apostrophe , 
Oxford University Press do not seem to be endorsing the above, despite Strunk 
and White's saying that they do.

For those interested in reading "The Elements of Style", it is still published 
and updated (a third author has now been added to the list of authors), but 
the original edition is now out of copyright and can be found on the internet.

	Kriton.
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"Just because something is not possible does not mean it can't be
  done--especially by someone who doesn't know any better."
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