Sunday, January 28, 2007

Calling Strunk & White the AP Stylebook

It's 11:30 p.m. This has been on the Web 18 hours.




UPDATE:

We should have called Strunk & White, or at least gotten off our asses to get our copy off the shelf, before invoking the two Cornellians. Indeed, The Elements of Style says to always use " 's " after a singular possessive proper noun.

However, the AP Stylebook, under the "singular proper names ending in S" section of "possessives," says this: "Use only an apostrophe. Achilles' heel, Agnes' book, Ceres' rites, etc.

This would seem to be the rare case where the stylebook and The Elements of Style disagree. We could have easily made the same mistake.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fucking brilliant. This baby deserves inclusion on CJR's joke page.

Anonymous said...

Or you can always enjoy the TL web poll that lists the wrong fucking teams in the super bowl.

http://forums.timesleader.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=kr-tlgennews&msg=2540.1&ctx=0

Anonymous said...

Must be shovel ware, it was wrong in print too

Anonymous said...

They just want to make sure you know it's plural. The alternative would be Kocis's's, just for a little more emphasis ("Hey, this time we really mean it").

Anonymous said...

Sadly, the Voice got it right, meaning someone at the Times inserted the error.

http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17775451&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=6

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Wonder if it was fat ass Chris Kelly's fuck up. Let's have another one of your boring ass colums, Kelly. I need to get some sleep. Or better yet, have Borys write one of his third-grade columns. I need to sleep.

Anonymous said...

Last time I checked Kelly wasn't writing headlines.

Anonymous said...

What am I missing here? The rule is Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's... follow the rule whatever the final consonant, ths write: "Charles's friend... Burns's poems..." etc.

Anonymous said...

I checked the AP Stylebook and, for this issue, it refers us to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. So, off to the dictionary I went.

"The possessive of plural nouns ending in an s or z sound is usually formed by adding only an apostrole ("birds' migrations"). The possessive of irregular plurals is formed by adding -'s ("Douglas's crimes, Degas's drawings").

So I guess it's "Kocis's neighbors," rather than "Kocis' neighbors."

I'd have thought otherwise. Well, dip me in chocolate and serve me up for dessert.

Anonymous said...

Here's an idea, maybe people should have at least some idea what they're talking about before they post this stuff... but I guess that would be a first for this site.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what style guides you all are looking at, but I consulted the 2005 book's punctuation guide. It's quite clear TT fucked up. Here is the entry for SINGLE PROPER NAMES ENDING IN S: Use only an apostrophe: Achilles' heel, Agnes' book, Ceres' rights, Descartes' theories, Dickens' novels...

I don't think I need to go on anymore. If you need further proof, observe that the TT corrected the error on its Web site in the headline at least, though not in the body of the story.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=17775401&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=590572&rfi=8

I'm kind of surprised by all the confusion over this.

Anonymous said...

I believe the title of this is "Calling Strunk & White."
Strunk & White clearly says:
"Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's... follow the rule whatever the final consonant, ths write: Charles's friend... Burns's poems..." etc.

Other reference books may vary. But to make stupid remarks about the improper use of the 's in this headline is to claim Strunk & White is incorrect.

NEPAmedia said...

See the clarification on the main post. In short, Strunk & White says use the S. The AP Stylebook says not to. We could have made the same mistake.

Anonymous said...

But at most newspapers, you follow AP style over Strunk & White

NEPAmedia said...

That's true. But relying on Strunk & White isn't exactly relying on the Old Forge School District Manual of Style. We assumed Strunk & White would never steer us wrong.

They didn't exactly steer the headline writer 'wrong' in this case. Just steered to incorrect style.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone suspect, as I do, that there is an evolution in style usage here? That happens in language and maybe we're in the middle of it. Which way it goes will be something our grandchildren will tell us. Maybe, S&W (not the WB restaurant) and AP will end up agreeing that it will be 's added for all, or just s' for all.

As Stan Freberg said, in his history of the USA, as he complained about "the purfuit of happineff,": "All your S's look like F's."

Anonymous said...

While you've all been ruminating over the correct possessive for someone whose name ends in "s," you've completely missed the way the writer used the incorrect plural for the neighbors.
More than one Parsons would be "the Parsonses" not "the Parsons."

Tom Carten said...

My college English teacher used to say, "When in doubt, write around it."

He was very sociable before then, the Parsons recalled.

He held particular fondness for his mother, father and sister, the Parsons said.


"...Mrs. Parsons recalled."
"...Mr. Parsons said."

:)


(Howcum my posts were changed to anonymous? New policy here?)

-TC