I swore I wasn't going to do this.
THE POSSESSIVE S
I'm going to DIRECTLY QUOTE Strunk & White's Elements of Style here, so thou shalt not throw stones at me. Here is the word from what I consider the Bible of writing style:
It is the VERY FIRST RULE of writing in the book.
1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's whatever the final consonant.Thus write,
Charles's friend
Burns's poems
the witch's malice
The plural possessive form of words that end in 'S' are as follows:
parents' anniversary
friends' party
Smiths' house
And thus... I have opened the can of worms. Let the debate begin!
******************
I'm dedicating this chapter to @julietlyons because I'm so stinking proud that her books, My True Love Ghost and Dating the Undead are getting some much-deserved attention! (And, I also want to tell her to not get her hopes up about me writing about the Oxford comma.) ;-)
YOU ARE READING
How to Write Fiction
Non-FictionThe advice you will find here follows the Chicago Manual of Style which is widely used by American publishers. There are some variances in style from country to country (and even from American publisher to American publisher.) **It may be easier to...
