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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."