Unlike Don Quixote, I find myself giving up certain battles as I age. Recently I've found myself letting go of my crusade against the incorrect use of apostrophes. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Lynne Truss' book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation." A book about punctuation and hilariously so. I used to gift it to young colleagues in need of help with writing since it's such a great read.
At least I did until I learned that this gesture had become a bit of an inhouse joke. One about and on me. Ouch. A junior colleague candidly explained that he was waiting to see how much time would pass before he received a copy. So he hasn't, that's the end of that.
I've come to notice glazed expressions when explaining that "it's" is a contraction, not a possessive. While I can't quite hear the muttering under the breath of "what does it matter?" I am now reading those thoughts.
So with apologies to Lynne (and Don Quixote), I've decided to relinquish this particular battle and leave the spell check generation to find its way. Or perhaps in this instance: it's way!
I am 100% behind you. It's impossible to change a whole generation but I do appreciate the proper use of grammar; bad punctuation is one of my pet peeves.
Posted by: Marilyn | 01/03/2012 at 05:37 PM