Re: Apostrophes

[Patrick Costello <Patrick Costello Sun COM>]

Matthew Revell wrote:
> 
> Howdy all,
> 
> I'm reading through the GNOME Documentation Style Guide V1.3 and have a
> question, regarding apostrophe usage.
> 
> On the page titled"Grammar and Usage Guidelines", there is an entry,
> which reads:
> 
> "Apostrophe
> 
> Rules
> 
> * Do not use apostrophes to denote possession.
> * Do not use apostrophes to denote contractions.
> * Do not use apostrophes to denote plurals."
> 
> The last of these I can agree with, but I'm a little confused by the
> first two. Are they a mistake?
> 

No mistake, but perhaps not as clear as possible. What we really want to do
is to discourage people from using 's to denote possession, and to spell
out full words rather than using contractions. Both of these grammar points
are perfectly fine in English-language source material meant for
English-language native readers. However, the disadvantages are as follows: 

- 's possessive does not exist in many languages, and is a potential
problem in translation. Also, this structure causes comprehension
difficulties for non-native-English readers reading the English text.

- Contractions also cause similar problems for translation and for
translation and text comprehension.

See also the following chapter in the GDSG, "Writing for an International
Audience", section "How to Write for Translation", topic 13 and topic 14. 

Furthermore, the apostrophe is so misused that we are better off avoiding
this grammar point.

Pat

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Patrick Costello, GNOME Documentation
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