Apostrophe Catastrophe

[tvordlj]

A few days ago in our local paper there was an article about how students were such poor writers and spellers. They couldn't construct a proper sentence for love or money and their grammar, punctuation and spelling is appalling, even in university levels. This spurred me to write to the paper and today they published the letter though it isn't in the website version. Therefore, the text of my letter is as follows:


Regarding the Feb. 1 front-page article on students’ grammar problems, one of the remarks was that students don’t seem to know what an apostrophe is. This really touched on one of my beefs. It’s not only students who misuse apostrophes. More and more, I see the apostrophe catastrophe — apostrophes in places they shouldn’t be, and even on professionally printed matter such as signs and advertisements. If adver­tising companies can’t get it right, what hope is there for students?

I blame the schools. Grammar is barely taught now. When I was in school in the 1970s, it was highly em­phasized in our curriculum. My thanks to the teachers at Bicentennial Junior High, and especially to Ralph Dockrill for pounding the rules of grammar into my head! I might not al­ways follow the rules when writing ca­sually on blogs or online, but I know what I’m doing when it counts!



And it's true. I even see ads in the newspaper and on buildings or in windows, professionally created ads and posters advertising things like "pizza's" and "car's" and signs in pubs (see above) when the context is clearly calling for a plural, not a possessive. I admit i don't always follow the rules of grammar and punctuation when i'm writing an LJ entry or whatever, something casual, and if my spelling isn't correct, you can mark that down to bad typing rather than not knowing how to spell the word usually. The apostrophe thing really bugs me, though.

Comments

[blueberrymoon.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the letter to the editor! Apostrophe's in the wrong place drive me crazy too:)

[acey.livejournal.com]

I applaud your letter. I too am a member of the Apostrophe Police and in fact this week, tried in vain to convince a current web client that she misplaced an apostrophe or two. She kept correcting my corrections. I wailed to myself that I was going to have to upload it that way and everyone would think it was my mistake. :( She's an author. Long story short, she did some research and was amazed to learn she'd been doing it wrong for most of her life.

My current irk is 'lay' and 'lie'. Whenever someone says 'I'm going to lay on the bed.' I picture them laying an egg, teehee.

[tvor.livejournal.com]

I think that confusion (lay/lie) comes from things like "I'm going to lay down" even though it's wrong, a lot of people say it to where it's almost become accepted. There are some expressions like that which are so commonly used that they are accepted.

[acey.livejournal.com]

It still grates on my old ears. :) I still remember My High School English teacher asking 'You're going to lay what down?' whenever he heard someone use lay/lie incorrectly. One smart Alec answered him by saying 'myself'. :)

[lola-is-naughty.livejournal.com]

I admit I'm guilty of the lie/lay mistake. I still don't remember the difference, however I'm frequently corrected by a coworker for whom English is her 4th language.

[lola-is-naughty.livejournal.com]

I remember when you took that photo :)

[tvor.livejournal.com]

Yes you were there!