It seems the writers and editors at The New York Times have given up on correctness. Two days ago, Adam Bryant -- along with his charlatan editors --  committed grievous grammatical boobery. Mr. Bryant's article displays a flagrant disregard for detail, meaning, and the apostrophe. The Society does not approve. 

This disturbing apostrophe abuse would be a semi-tolerable mistake if it represented a genuine misunderstanding of how to pluralize acronyms. But it's worse than that -- and not even close to tolerable. Bryant besprinkles apostrophes willy-nilly throughout the entire article, perhaps relying on luck to stumble upon the right meaning. And stumble Bryant does -- on the first page of the article, there are only two correct usages, one of which is in the title of his already-published book. 

The other one is the only usage to actually mean what it should -- the C.E.O.s own something: a job. 

Unfortunately, the 6 other apostrophe appearances (on the first page) point to Bryant & Co. being total grammatical boobs. Take a look: 

Simply being a business fat cat doesn't entitle the C.E.O. to own "are supposed to project confidence..." and "offered myriad lessons and insight..." 

See all the apostrophe booberies committed by Bryant here. 

This display of boobery highlights more than Bryant's indifference and ignorance: it underlines an epidemic plaguing our acronyms and numericals. That is, Bryant is not the only boob. In fact, this type of error is perhaps more common than any other. 

I love the 80's? This is wrong in two senses. First, the apostrophe does not denote plural, so its usage is incorrect. Second, the possession doesn't even work. One would have to say I love the 80s' sensibilities or the 80s' tablecloths: the 80s are plural already and possess something together.  We also often see advertisements for DJ's who rock the house, DVD's at a huge discount, and the socioeconomic upheavals of the 1800's. We should rather hear of a DJ's beats, a DVD's quality, and 1851's particular fondness for the railroad. 

The apostrophe primarily represents possession (secondarily omission). It does not mark plurals. 

To learn more about apostrophes, visit our Education Page. 

Thanks to SAGB member Dan Dunning for submitting Bryant's article. 

Our inaugural featured boobery highlights irony. For your pleasure, we have culled 5 delightful and deplorable disconnects between content and form:

5. The Grammar Vandal at http://thegrammarvandal.wordpress.com/: “But, seriously: this blog is about advertisements and businesses and professional writing.  In short, writing that should be proofread before being presented to the public. I care about professionalism.”

OFFENSES: Comma after coordinating conjunction; fragment.

4. The Old-Fashioned Punctuator at http://forum.starmen.net/forum/General/Discussion/The-Oxford-Comma: “I was taught to put the comma but I don’t think it’s totally necessary. It’s optional. It’s a little piece of style in writing. Just a little one.Or even more complex if there is something like: We were with my friend, a swimmer and a hiker. You just made me a firm believer in the Oxford comma. I’ve never heard that example but I love it. Unfortunately I’m a comma abuser and you’re now an enabler…When I correct friend’s papers, I always place the comma in there. I’m a bit old fashioned when it comes to punctuation and grammar.”

OFFENSES: No comma with coordinating conjunction; fragment; no space after period; fragment; no comma with coordinating conjunction; no comma with introductory clause; no comma with coordinating conjunction; apostrophe misuse; hyphenation error.

3. Grammar Girl (Guru) at http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/: “Mignon Fogarty is the host of Grammar Girl and founder of Quick and Dirty Tips.  Prior to becoming a grammar guru, Mignon was a magazine and technical writer, and an entrepreneur.  Mignon has a B.A. in English from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University.”

OFFENSE: Comma Misuse — No comma is needed after “writer” because there are only two items in the series: writer (1) and entrepreneur (2). She is correctly comma-less in the first and last sentence, both of which have two items listed.


2. The Non-Discriminator at Twentysomething.wordpress: “Ever since Vampire Weekend brought it to my attention, I have become obsessed with oxford commas. But I don’t discriminate. I’m also having a renewed love affair with full stops, exclamation points and commas in general…And heaven help the person who forgets to punctuate in my presence.”

OFFENSE: Lack of Oxford Comma

1. National Grammar Day at www.nationalgrammarday.com: “Language is something to celebrate, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It’s not only a date, it’s an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same!”

PRIMARY OFFENSE: Comma Splice -- There is no good reason to separate independent clauses with a comma (unless you’re as dramatic as Caesar the Splicer). While we recognize that commas can sometimes separate very short independent clauses (from a non-purist point of view), we believe there are several better options for punctuating this sentence. A semi-colon would be fine, though a bit clunky. A dash would work and allow for the current colon (a nice one) to stay.  But in terms of form reflecting content, we think that “It’s not only a date: it’s (also) an imperative!” is ideal.
SECONDARY OFFENSE: Not only … but also

While secondary to the splice, this parallel structure is important for a completely correct utterance.