Jesse Christian
Eng. 328
2/16/09

Lately, as I’ve been standing in line somewhere, I’ve been looking over flyers(paper "flyers" is correct spelling) fliers? that someone has posted somewhere. (maybe you could describe specifically where you were and what you were looking at? just to give it a bit more interest) It usually has some sort of bright color, or a fascinating image,; something to attract one to the flyer(flyer) flier. The problem comes once I try to read what the flyer (I think this is right as it is, but look it up for verification) flier (suggest an action directed towards the flyer - take "is about" out) is about; (or maybe you could change 'about' to 'what the flyer has to say') it isn’t that the information is wrong, it’s that the(suggest removing "it's that the" leave subject and an action about the sentence in - a lot of explanation about the sentence being wrong- good just shorten) sentence structure itself is wrong. Don’t get me wrong, the spelling is usually correct, and most of the punctuation is there, but it has become apparent to me that people simply do not know how to use apostrophes correctly. There are three ways in which to use an apostrophe: To show ownership of a noun (Erick’s credit card), to omit letters with a contraction (changing do not to don’t) and finally, to show plurals of lower case letters (there were a lot of r’s in that sentence). The first rule is what people have the most trouble with. They try to use(explain the rule again in action form) it, and do it incorrectly (I was a little confused when I first read this sentence. What do they try to use? The rule? Maybe reword). For instance, with the word "it"; people try to imply ownership to the word “it” when it isn’t a noun. All of the time, I see (maybe reword previous phrase. It sounded funny to me)“The group made it’s decision” when the apostrophe after “it” is supposed to be a contraction. The sentence, when the word is separated, now reads “the group made it is decision” which no longer makes sense. Because “it” is not a noun, it should not have an apostrophe for possession. The sentence should simply read “The group made its decision.” Another problem that people have with showing possession is where to put the apostrophe. Another part to the possession rule is the exception of words ending in the letter “s”. This is particularly common in last names; for instance “Jones” or “Marcus” both end in the letter “s”. The problem comes when people try to write “Jones’s” or “Marcus’s”. There is no need to put a second “s”. Instead, one can simply put the apostrophe after the original “s” like so : “Jones’” or “Marcus’” which still implies ownership, but makes the word easier to read, and easier to say. The second rule, the contraction, is something of a concern to me as well. People often times (consider removing 'times' to 'often misuse') misuse the idea of contractions. The first idea of misuse is simply forgetting about contractions all together. (more specific beginning of sentence - what is confrontational) This is the most confrontational with the word “it” as people tend to write “it’s” to imply ownership, forgetting that “It is” contracts down to “it’s”.*maybe you can reword the previous sentence to make it easier to understand Another popular way to misuse the contraction is to misspell the newly made word. For instance, when “does not” contracts to “doesn’t” people might write “dosn’t, and omit the “e” on accident. The using of the word “ain’t” is becoming more popular as well. yes! good point - comes from Williams-page 172The problem with “ain’t” is that there is no word to derive it from. *would it be derived from two words? With “doesn’t” it comes from the words “does” and “not”. The two mesh together to form the contracted “doesn’t”. With “ain’t”, however, “there aren’t any words to contract down; “A not” doesn’t make any sense. The contracted word has come to mean “is not” but if that is the case, then one simply needs to contract it into “isn’t”. The third and final use of the apostrophe is rarely used. In fact, it is so uncommon to use this form of apostrophe, that people simply don’t know that it exists. For instance, someone may say “mind your ps and qs”, which is an old adage for “mind your own business”. What people don’t realize is that the proper way to write this sentence would be “mind your p’s and q’s.” The apostrophe is needed at the end of the letter to show that there are multiples of that letter, and not that someone is trying to say the word “ps”. The apostrophe is necessary to indicate a multiple of one letter as opposed to a new word entirely. It is becoming increasingly popular to misuse the apostrophe, or to forget about it entirely. The idea of contracting “is not” into “ain’t” is an improper form of slang that has also recently surfaced. There are plenty of ways to misuse apostrophes, but only three ways to use them properly.
Good points, wow that color was annoying. Much better now. Um Yes you have a good start on your essay, nice topic choice, I have lot's of trouble's with apostrophe's. Seriously, Of course you need to make sure your final copy is long enough 1250 -1500 words, use proper quotations and citations, and yes work on making your essay much clearer. Thanks!''''''''
Works Cited:

White, E.B. and William Strunk. The Elements of Style. New York: Longman, 2000.

Williams, Joseph. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995