Apostrophe do’s and don’ts by Angela Caldin
A long time ago I have a strong memory of being taught about apostrophes in our grammar lessons at school in the 1950s. We were definitely taught to put an apostrophe in that decade and to write the 1950’s. I’m not quite sure what the reasoning was for putting the apostrophe in, but I’m glad that modern usage has decided that we’re dealing with a plural noun and that no apostrophe is required. Mrs Walsh, our English teacher, is probably turning in her grave to see that we now refer to MPs… Read More
The abstruse apostrophe by Angela Caldin
I’ve been pondering this week on apostrophes. What a sad life she must lead, I hear you sigh. But actually this particular case is quite interesting. It concerns the question of whether there should be an apostrophe after a plural adjectival or attributive noun. Specifically, I was writing up the notes of our recent residents meeting and wondering if there should be an apostrophe after residents or not. I looked it up and it seems that in this case, either would be acceptable: Residents’ meeting – the word residents’ is a possessor. The phrase could be rewritten… Read More
Apostrophes Revisited by Angela Caldin
Emily Smart, Copywriter Extraordinaire I must start by saying that, when it comes to copywriting, my fellow blogger, Emily, is a brilliant exponent of the craft. She can turn out an excellent piece of writing at the drop of a hat in whatever style, tone or genre that you wish. She can be funny, serious, concise, detailed, evocative or plain down to earth – whatever best suits the task in hand. If you want a copywriter who can write accurately to a brief and deliver the goods to a deadline, then Emily’s… Read More
Collaborative Short Story by Angela Caldin and Friends
I belong to a writing group composed of five friends who met 10 years ago on a week’s holiday on the island of Zakynthos where we took part in a creative writing course. (Actually, that’s not strictly accurate as one of the friends is my husband whom I met more than 40 years ago and he didn’t do creative writing, he did sailing, but we let him join the group nonetheless.) One of our activities over the years has been to write stories where one of us starts off and then the… Read More
The Missing Apostrophe by Angela Caldin
Grammatical Error in Genteel Tearooms While I was up in Harrogate recently, I had the pleasure of visiting the famous tearooms in the town centre. As I was drinking in the atmosphere, I noticed on the menu that the name of this delightful venue was spelt BETTYS. I did a double take and realised what was troubling me: there was no apostrophe. I drank my coffee and enjoyed my croissant nonetheless, but when I got home I looked on their website and found this under the section marked FAQs: Q. Why has… Read More
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