How to Use the Apostrophe Correctly

Chances are if you've been around Internet forums long enough you have seen someone post Bob the Angry Flower's Guide to the Apostrophe. While the simple rant of the flower is amusing it highlights a problem I have seen from time to time even on the featured articles section of Associated Content. What may be this simple and easily avoided grammatical mistake? Misusing the apostrophe when forming contraction or using the apostrophe when you mean to make a word plural in the English language.

We all make mistakes from time to time, so my point is not to be a grammar Nazi although I can be quite good at that should I feel the need but rather to keep people from putting in headlines like "The In's and Outs of Being a Webcam Stripper" article that appeared about a week ago on the first featured content page. Personally, had I let such a simple error slip through in the headline of my article I would be embarrassed. The original author probably moved to Bolivia under an assumed name. Maybe he did not react in such an extreme to manner to that faux pas, and karma will dictate I will soon commit a more egregious typo when submitting one of my own articles to the site.

The rule that got broken in the example was using the apostrophe to form the plural form of the noun In. When forming the plural of most words in the English language you only need to add an s. However, if you wish to show possession for a single person, you add the apostrophe then the s. If more than one person owns a place, animal, or thing, then you place the apostrophe after the s. The gray area is when a word ends in s and forum the plural in the singular would make the pronunciation awkward. Such a time is sadly left up the general public in their writer who seem to be confused enough as it is when it comes to this punctuation mark. When something belongs to an object the 's form should not be used and a phrase like the blades of the lawnmower counts as grammatically correct.