A quick homework question

[Senegoid]

@pancakes3

Agree to disagree. I learned via Elements of Style that it’s 's on everything except for “ancient” names like Jesus or Achilles. How ancient, is a matter of debate. It certainly applies to Dr. Seuss’s examples.

Should the possessive of Columbus be Columbus’ or Columbus’s?

References you could find on-line are all over the place on this. When I learned about The Rebellion of Shay in Alerican History, it was emphatically mentioned that it’s “Shays’s Rebellion”. The above-linked Wiki article calls it “Shays’ Rebellion”. Googling for it, you can find many cites both ways.

So there doesn’t seem to be a widely-agreed-to rule for how to make possessive a name that already ends with s.

[Little_Nemo]

@Senegoid

Should the possessive of Columbus be Columbus’ or Columbus’s?

References you could find on-line are all over the place on this. When I learned about The Rebellion of Shay in Alerican History, it was emphatically mentioned that it’s “Shays’s Rebellion”. The above-linked Wiki article calls it “Shays’ Rebellion”. Googling for it, you can find many cites both ways.

So there doesn’t seem to be a widely-agreed-to rule for how to make possessive a name that already ends with s.

I believe this is one of those British/American splits. American style is generally to write Columbus’ memory; British style is generally to write Columbus’s memory. Neither is inherently better than the other.

[Little_Nemo]

@Inner_Stickler

The popular perception of Columbus resides in the same upper echelon as American heroes like George Washington and Thomas Edison: a perfect man who only committed acts of goodness.

Is how I’d write it, although, I still wouldn’t say upper echelon.

I still feel you’re better off comparing like to like. Either compare the perception of Columbus to the perceptions of Washington and Edison or compare Columbus to Washington and Edison.

[aNewLeaf]

@WhyNot

William Strunk’s Elements of Style recommends adding the 's

.

Awesome research, but you could stop at Strunk and White. I’ll be adding the final ‘s’ now.

[Bootis]

Also, Columbus wasn’t American, so what is the purpose of pointing out that the people you are comparing him to are American?

[gigi]

@bengangmo

I thought that “double S” was falling out of favour?

I certainly used double S when growing up - and when reading Enid Blyton it is all over the place …but now when I write anything I only use single S when denoting ownership of the plural

Was there ever a time when the plural possessive took an extra S ??

The teachers’ desks are all made of walnut.

[Johnny_Bravo]

@anewleaf

i’ll be adding the final ‘s’ now.

One of us! One of us!