She makes, what I believe to be, an apt comparison regarding the use of periods (called full-stops in the book) and commas with men and women. Truss deviates briefly to touch on the use of periods and commas in this chapter as well. The twelve apostrophe abuse scandals that readers reported to Truss were: “singular possessive instead of simple plural (the ‘greengrocer’s apostrophe’), singular possessive instead of plural possessive, plural possessive instead of singular possessive, no possessive where possessive is required, dangling expectations caused by incorrect pluralisation, unintentional sense from unmarked possessive, someone knows an apostrophe is required, apostrophes put in place names/proper names, it’s or its’ instead of its, plain illiteracy, commas instead of apostrophes, signs that have given up trying”.
The correct and official uses of the apostrophe include: (1)indicating a possessive singular noun, (2)indicating time or quantity, (3) indicating the omission of figures in dates, (4) indicating the omission of letters, (5)indicating non-standard English, (6) featuring Irish names, (7) indicating plural letters, (8)and indicating plural word forms (Truss, pp. For inquiring minds who want to know, there are eight official uses and twelve documented abuses of the apostrophe.
In Truss’s second chapter, “The Tractable Apostrophe”, she: lists the proper uses for apostrophes, expresses her sympathy for abuse the punctuation mark endures, and enlightens the reader about its history. Truss selected this heading for the introduction because she connects the punctuation sticklers’ emotions to Haley Joel Osment’s character in the film The Sixth Sense. While Osment’s character can see dead people, punctuation sticklers tend to “see dead punctuation”.
Truss continues to share her run-ins with punctuation in the introduction of her book, which she titled: “the Seventh Sense”. Can you spot the mistake from the following advertisement: “Come inside, for CD’s, Video’s, DVD’s, and Book’s.”? If you stated that the punctuation punk used the apostrophe incorrectly, then congratulations! Unfortunately, we’re among the few people who noticed or even felt personally attacked by such an oversight that was allowed to go into print. Lynne Truss begins her seven chapter book with a challenge for the reader. *No copyright intended for displayed image*
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