42 Apostrophes

The little apostrophe can make a big difference in meaning. The following sign at a neighborhood swimming pool, for instance, says something different from what the writer probably intended:

Please deposit your garbage (and your guests) in the trash receptacles before leaving the pool area.

The sign indicates that guests should be put in the trash. Adding a single apostrophe would offer a more neighborly statement: Please deposit your garbage (and your guests’) in the trash receptacles before leaving the pool area asks that the guests’ garbage, not the guests themselves, be thrown away.

Editing for Apostrophes

AT A GLANCE

  • Check each noun that ends in -s and shows possession. Is the apostrophe in the right place, either before or after the -s? (42a)
  • Check the possessive form of each indefinite pronoun, such as someone’s. Be sure the apostrophe comes before the -s. (42a)
  • Check each personal pronoun that ends with -s (yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs) to make sure it does not include an apostrophe. (42a)
  • Does each it’s mean it is or it has? If not, remove the apostrophe. (42b)
  • Make sure other contractions use apostrophes correctly. (42b)