And I’m with the old English teacher on this one–this is not an evolution of language, it’s sloppiness. When my kids were in middle school, we used to play a game called “Apostrophe!” wherein we looked for misplaced and unnecessary apostrophes. I, naturally, was the champion and they were reluctant participants. Nobody “gets” apostrophes these days. My husband teaches research and writing at an unnamed law school and his first few weeks of instruction are centered on commas, apostrophes, quote marks and the like.

I don’t blame English teachers for this, by the way. I blame the non-reading, anti-intellectual public. Most of us absorb the niceties of punctuation by reading and observing them endlessly, combined with a dose of Warriner’s Grammar lessons in school. Teachers could teach lessons on apostrophes every other day, and folks still wouldn’t get it until they began actually reading and writing for non-school purposes.

I really enjoy your blog, Karen.