Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 8/21/84; site rlgvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!ihnp4!zehntel!tektronix!hplabs!hao!seismo!rlgvax!jack From: jack@rlgvax.UUCP (Jack Waugh) Newsgroups: net.jokes.d Subject: Apostrophes Message-ID: <76@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: Sun, 2-Sep-84 22:14:47 EDT Article-I.D.: rlgvax.76 Posted: Sun Sep 2 22:14:47 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 03:02:54 EDT Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA Lines: 18 I don't know if it's very important that users of the written form of the English language stick to some kind of standardized spelling and punctuation. There wasn't standardized spelling in Ben Franklin's time, and now the pendulum seems to be swinging that direction again. But I think it would be kind of nice if you jokesters limited your use of apostrophes to the way my English teachers said they were supposed to be used. Use apostrophes (1) to signal that something is left out, as in "don't" for "do not", or (2) to show possesion, as in "the cat's toy", but NOT in a possessive pronoun (such as "his", "her", "its", "whose"). Don't put an apostrophe in a plural noun unless the noun is also possesive. Example: "The computers destroyed the users' work. The users had to do their work over."