Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.

[Ganymede]

@Admiral said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

My company is a mess. And I can't afford the 25 to 40 percent pay cut I would get from bring transferred.

I hear you.

Sucks ass.

[SuperiorHuron]

Not really a peeve, but if Leslie Jordan could just start announcing every disaster or bit of bad news from here on out, that'd be GREAT!

[Sunny]

Singular nouns, even when they end in s, get an apostrophe s to make them possessive in English. That is how it is. You do not get to ignore this in your business report because you think that rule is stupid. I don't care if it looks funny to you, that's how it works (for this type of writing, we do not play fast and loose with grammar for self-expression, it's just not done). This is for public consumption, not internal, and that's why I'm editing it in the first place.

ETA: Telling me you aren't going to change it doesn't work either, because it goes through me to get to the publisher and I will not send on anything like that. That would be on me, and nope.

[Jeshin]

@Sunny

Wait I thought that pluralized things were just s'

So Tas is Tas's not Tas' ?

What are they teaching in schools!

[Sunny]

@Jeshin
Singular possessive always gets 's, regardless of the letter it ends with. Plural possessive may or may not get the s after the apostrophe, depending on the letter it ends with and a few other weird exceptions.

ETA: Key here is 'possessive', not just plural. Also this is seriously just formal business writing, I don't even notice this stuff in casual use (that is a lie, I notice, I just don't care).

[Sunny]

I really don't even care if people get it wrong, just don't effing argue with me when I fix it!

[Ganymede]

@Sunny said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Singular possessive always gets 's, regardless of the letter it ends with. Plural possessive may or may not get the s after the apostrophe, depending on the letter it ends with and a few other weird exceptions.

The sorceress's staff belongs to Maleficent.
The sorceresses are named Maleficent and Gothel.
The sorceresses' staffs belong to Maleficent and Gothel.

Correct apostrophe use is critical to understanding homonyms.

[faraday]

@Ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Correct apostrophe use is critical to understanding homonyms.

Yes but as with many things in writing, there is no one universal "correct" when it comes to punctuation style. Even the two major styles (AP and Chicago) don't always agree. For example:

https://apvschicago.com/2011/06/apostrophe-s-vs-apostrophe-forming.html

Not disagreeing with @Sunny's examples in particular, because as editor, their literal job is to be the arbiter of style for their organization. Just a corollary peeve that the grammar "rules" we learn in school often aren't rules at all, but styles.

[Tinuviel]

@faraday said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Just a corollary peeve that the grammar "rules" we learn in school often aren't rules at all, but styles.

[Sunny]

http://www.jlakes.org/ch/web/The-elements-of-style.pdf

All else is false. And wrong. And false and wrong. And also should be lit on fire. That's my professional opinion.

(I state again, in case anyone missed it, this is very specifically in reference to formal/business writing.)

[Tinuviel]

@Sunny Oh, man. Now I know we can't be friends.

[faraday]

@Sunny said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

All else is false. And wrong. And false and wrong. And also should be lit on fire. That's my professional opinion. (I state again, in case anyone missed it, this is very specifically in reference to formal/business writing.)

That's cool. But other professional editors can and do have their own professional opinions about the ideal style for their publications. I've been under both CMS and AP styles at various organizations throughout my tech writing career.

Every writing organization is entitled to their own style. That's why the guides are called Elements of Style and the Chicago Manual of Style and AP Style and not The AP Guide to the One True Way of Writing English. For better or worse, we don't have a French Academy dictating how the language should be done "correctly."

[Tinuviel]

@faraday said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Every writing organization is entitled to their own style.

Hell, many organisations outside of the writing profession have their own "this is how we do" style guides. They're not usually as detailed as a grammar guide, but they're certainly out there.

[Sunny]

Sorry folks, apparently my tongue was not quite firmly enough in my cheek for my commentary.

[Tinuviel]

@Sunny said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Sorry folks, apparently my tongue was not quite firmly enough in my cheek for my commentary.

A coder, an editor, and a linguist walk into a bar...

[Ganymede]

@faraday said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Not disagreeing with @Sunny's examples in particular, because as editor, their literal job is to be the arbiter of style for their organization. Just a corollary peeve that the grammar "rules" we learn in school often aren't rules at all, but styles.

Without condemning or condoning, I understand.

[Rinel]

As an interesting FYI almost all style guides make an exception for Jesus, of which the possessive form is generally rendered Jesus'.

I follow the rule that proper nouns ending in s simply have an apostrophe following them (e.g. James') but I also use British double consonants and the spelling "grey" so I'm not so much principled as I am chaotically pretentious.

[Auspice]

The things stores are still sold out of is frustrating.

I just want to make some pasta gdi.

[surreality]

@Rinel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

and the spelling "grey" so I'm not so much principled as I am chaotically pretentious.

...I use whichever spelling I saw last on paint or an art supply, since I always forget which is which.

So it is possible to be even more chaotically pretentious! Though I swear that one isn't intentional.

[Ominous]

@Sunny

I thought it was pretty obvious that you were joking.