To apostrophe or not apostrophe, that is the question

majorbabs · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2003 12:41 pm

Please offer comment on how you feel about this as an AD headline, not a news headline. (It's not the headline in question, it's just an example.)"John's getting a new MP3 player... with the help of his parent's credit union."The debate comes from "John's" versus "John is." The writer's argument (for John's) is that this is how this generation talks and ads should talk in the reader's vernacular, the readers in this case being fairly young. The editor's argument (John is) is that it's not preferred English and we have an obligation to present everything in the best English possible.This goes back to our "sucks" discussion, but wondering what people think.

SusanV · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2003 2:28 pm

Silly me. I thought the debate was going to be parent's vs. parents'.(As far as John's/John is goes, for an ad I wouldn't be bothered by the former, but I'd probably change it in serious copy.)

Rio · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2003 2:58 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by SusanV:
(As far as John's/John is goes, for an ad I wouldn't be bothered by the former, but I'd probably change it in serious copy.)<hr></blockquote>Agreed. The ad-headline example is colloquial, which doesn't make it bad English in and of itself. For an ad, it's fine; give the bill-payer what he wants. But news copy and headlines should be informal, which is a notch above chit-chat mode.

majorbabs · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2003 3:23 pm

Sorry about that "parent's" inaccuracy; I was typing fast and concentrating elsewhere. It should, of course, be "his parents' credit union."Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

Gatekeeper · **Posted:** Fri Nov 14, 2003 12:33 am

It's ad copy, so I guess there isn't much the j-side of the building could do about it.Speaking of contractions, the reporters where I work are using them more and more in their stories, with the blessing of the city editor. Apparently we, too, are "catering" to the informal speak of today's population.That doesn't stop me from changing them into whole words most of the time, though.Gatekeeper-30-

Rio · **Posted:** Fri Nov 14, 2003 2:39 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Gatekeeper:
Speaking of contractions, the reporters where I work are using them more and more in their stories, with the blessing of the city editor. Apparently we, too, are "catering" to the informal speak of today's population.That doesn't stop me from changing them into whole words most of the time, though.<hr></blockquote>What's wrong with contractions? They make the story easier to read without compromising the integrity of the copy. We're in the business of editing newspapers, not dissertations.

SusanV · **Posted:** Fri Nov 14, 2003 11:16 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Gary Kirchherr:
What's wrong with contractions? They make the story easier to read without compromising the integrity of the copy. We're in the business of editing newspapers, not dissertations.<hr></blockquote>For the most part I agree. It's fairly easy to strike a balance; the ones that I change are the sort than can be misunderstood. The example in our stylebook reads, "The professor insists she's misunderstood."

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