by Crystal Shelley
In my last blog post, I provided an overview of the most common punctuation marks used in English and the different functions they serve. Here I discuss eight punctuation mistakes I often encounter when editing fiction.
USING APOSTROPHES TO PLURALIZE WORDS
Unless you’re pluralizing an individual letter (“mind your p’s and q’s”) or a word that might be confusing otherwise (“do’s and don’ts”), apostrophes are not used to make things plural. This is one of the most common mistakes I come across in writing and in the real world. You may have seen signs in the wild declaring “Condo’s for sale” or “Get your Christmas tree’s here.” This also happens in fiction writing, especially when it comes to pluralizing proper nouns. If you’re tempted to use an apostrophe in a plural, stop and think for a second. Are you trying to show possession or attribution? If not, the apostrophe probably doesn’t belong. For an in-depth look at this topic, check out my blog post on plurals and possessives.
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