The plural of book is NOT book's!

I have a new grammar pet peeve: the use of a possessive apostrophe to denote a plural. In just the past few weeks, I’ve seen the following on signs, menus and posters around New York City:

Great gift idea for teacher’s
Open Sunday’s and Monday’s
We print on tank top’s!
Banana’s and mango’s on sale this week

I have no idea why this has become so popular, but it’s everywhere I go, and it drives me nuts! I even saw it in a self-published book last week, in which the narrator mentioned how she had consulted with various doctor’s. Yes, doctor’s. I was annoyed but kept reading, only to be distracted by countless other grammatical blunders throughout the book. The storyline was interesting, but it was completely overshadowed by the errors that popped up on every page. Every single page. Because of that, I will not be recommending the book to anyone, which is a lost opportunity for the author because I love to talk about books.

If you’re going to put your work out into the world, make sure the grammar is perfect. If grammar isn’t your thing, hire an editor! Actually, you should hire an editor anyway, because we all need multiple sets of eyes to help catch what ours can no longer see after staring at the computer screen for so long.

In a future blog post, I’ll go over the most common grammatical errors I see. For now, see if you notice the apostrophe overload. Maybe together we can stop the madness!

-Maria

Maria Murnane writes romantic comedies and provides consulting services on book publishing and marketing. Learn more at www.mariamurnane.com

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Comment by Kamy Wicoff on October 29, 2011 at 8:11am: I couldn't agree more about hiring a good editor -- don't forget that if you need one, you can rely on the amazing editors She Writes has ready to help!

Comment by Cindy Brown on October 29, 2011 at 8:04am: If I made any of those errors mentioned, I would have myself declared mentally incompetent or claw my own eyeballs out. My work isn't perfect, but those are basics everyone should know. I have found that an editor is necessary because it is true that our eyes don't catch things occasionally. However, to miss some higher level errors occasionally should be tolerated and I have found that some editors often make me feel like a complete idiot when I make a mistake. If mistakes are few and far between and there is talent and the content is very good, give them a break. Glaring errors on every page, however, need to be pointed out. Somebody should contact this author and make sure she is aware that the book is full of errors and suggest that she should use a different editing source next time. I know I want to grow and improve in my writing. She probably does too. I am thinking there must be some very nice editors out there who can Paula Abdul correct you instead of Simon Coweling you to death.

Comment by Elaine Fields Smith on October 29, 2011 at 7:50am: Glad to see I'm not the only one! I took a grammar class from Writer's Digest (yes I think it should be Writers' Digest and be both plural and possessive) and it helped. Well, printing the reference material helped. But one thing I've learned in this writing/publishing thing is: get a GOOD editor. Pay for it. Then get a proof reader, too. I "self published" my book by starting my own company and to date, no one has found an error in it. Now if MS Word could decide when it's correct to use its grammar feature correctly or it's gonna continue to make me crazy. er. (Let's not even talk about comma usage...haha)

Comment by Karoline Barrett on October 29, 2011 at 7:43am: I love, love, love this post!!! A good book on the subject: The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time. By Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson.

My pet peeves have all been mentioned, plus how EVERYONE seems to use "There's a lot of ...." when they really mean "There're a lot of..."

Comment by Beverly Vines-Haines on October 29, 2011 at 7:21am: When we finish this discussion let's talk about the weird use of your for you're and 'alot' and text speak making it into homework and signage. Worthy discussions all.

Comment by Rebecca Hughes Parker on October 29, 2011 at 7:20am: I agree - the use of apostrophes for possessives is maddening! And widespread! Years ago we were at an outside cafe and the chalkboard said "We have egg's" and I actually went and erased the apostrophe! At my law firm on Fridays we can wear jeans if we pay five dollars to a charity and we often get emails titled "Jean's Day this Friday." I didn't realize Jean had a day....

Comment by Patricia Gligor on October 29, 2011 at 7:03am: Maria,

I too would like to stop the madness! I enjoyed your post. Actually, it prompted me to add a post today on my She Writes blog; the subject is Punctuation. I hope you'll check it out.

Comment by Michael N. Marcus on October 28, 2011 at 2:28am: Tom Lehrer claims he “went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity.” Tom graduated from Harvard Magna Cum Laude at age 18 and is in Phi Beta Kappa. He taught at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley and the University of California, but is best known for hilarious songwriting, much of it political satire, in the 1950s and 60s. Britain’s Princess Margaret was a fan and so am I. I can still sing Tom Lehrer lyrics I first heard in seventh grade, in 1958.

In Tom's "Be Prepared," he advises "Don't write naughty words on walls if you can't spell." The grammar corallary is similarly important. In addition to unnecessary or misplaced commas, I go nuts over unnecessary quote marks like "No" parking.

Michael N. Marcus

-- Just out: "STINKERS!: America's Worst Self-Published Books," http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983057257

-- http://www.BookMakingBlog.blogspot.com
-- http://www.BookFur.com (information, help and book reviews for authors)
-- Create Better Books, with the Silver Sands Publishing Series: http://www.silversandsbooks.com/booksaboutpublishing.html
-- "Stories I'd Tell My Children (but maybe not until they're adults)," http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983057249

Comment by Alyson Miers on October 27, 2011 at 6:35pm: I occasionally Tweet with the hashtag #apostropheabuse to document the errors I see put up for public display.

Other forms of apostrophe abuse include misusing them in pronouns. Examples: "who's" for "whose," it's" for "its," "her's" for "hers," "their's" for "theirs" and so on.