GRAMMAR 101 Lesson #1: Apostrophes
I'm sick and tired of seeing this epidemic of apostrophe misuse. This is mainly directed toward the field of journalism, which is dumbing down quicker than children's television. Can someone say "Tinky-Winky" for me?


RIGHT: One of a parent's main fears is for her child to go missing.
WRONG: Parent's all around the world want their children to be safe and happy.

An apostrophe denotes possession. In the first sentence, fear belongs to the parent. The parent possesses fear, therefore an apostrophe is appropriate. In the second sentence, parents should be plural, because it is talking about multiple parents. There is no possession declared in this sentence.

Here's another example.

RIGHT: The Rays are going to the World Series.
WRONG:The Ray's are perhaps one of the most talented teams in baseball.

"Rays" is a team name. Most of the time, team names are plural (there are exceptions, such as the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Utah Jazz). The usage of the apostrophe is wrong in the second sentence because not only is there no possession denoted in the sentence, the correct way to use an apostrophe for most team names would be:

RIGHT: Things are going the Rays' way.
RIGHT: The Saints' defense and special teams are terrible. Gramatica should be booed off the field.
RIGHT: Who would have thought that the Patriots' offense would fall flat this year?

And here's another wrong example:
WRONG: Wow, the Ram's suck this year.

Here's one more.

RIGHT: It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood.
WRONG: It's fur is matted and dirty.

Alas, this is one of the most common grammatical problems. It's is a contraction that means "it is". Read your sentence out loud. If "it is" does not work in your sentence, it will be "its".

Here's the second sentence with "it is" substituted for "it's". Doesn't this sound funny?
It is fur is matted and dirty.

If you said that out loud, we'd laugh at you. If you wrote that, we'd also laugh at you.

Please think of your third-grade education before writing. I'm pretty sure all of you passed the third grade. Please write like you have.