# How do I punctuate this possessive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2024, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014 "2024-03-19T02:35:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/21 "2024-03-21T17:18:09Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Do you mean “Thriller” the song or _Thriller_ the album? Context is everything. > [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Anybody can break rules, but most people can only break rules in an _artful manner_ after mastering them. But there are no rules in style. Merely dozens of often contradictory conventions. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/22 "2024-03-21T17:54:29Z")
I agree with that in principal but not in universal practice. Whether a particular style is convention or religion is a matter of personal circumstance. We can take it as read that you can always have one more _ah yes, but that isn’t a rule so much as a convention_ until we’re arguing about hypothetical proto-indo-european words. 🙂 The whole reason we have style guides is because even the “rules” in English are a contradictory mess. The various guides are about consistency and clarity: just a collection of winding paths through the same otherwise impenetrable jungle. Yes, of course, an accomplished writer will develop their own style and voice over time. But _most_ people aren’t going to learn to blaze their own trails without walking on the paths set down by others. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/23 "2024-03-21T18:37:11Z")
I mostly usually\* agree with this. I’m a strong advocate of aids like Strunk and White, even though the cognoscenti like to dump on that particular example today. From what I see, teaching style has not advanced since I was in high school. Teachers have no time to teach nuances, so they teach rules. Yet these “rules” have two contradictory failings. One, they are not all-encompassing, so they can be applied wrongly. Two, people insist on others applying the rule to cases where it does not fit. Hardly anyone other than professionals will consult with an 700-page Chicago Manual of Style. Even pros soon learn that’s what the copyeditors, those poor saps, are for.\*\* Context is still everything. A few years ago people practically had apoplexy at the use of “u” for you in texting. Today you’d get insulted as a boomer if you didn’t do that. The context of a message board is different from the context of a newspaper. We have hundreds of posters and the polite fiction is that each of them should be considered equal to all the others no matter what rules they follow or never have heard of. In practice this mostly usually works. Only a few outliers and posters in threads about language and style get their adherence parsed. That’s as it should be. \* I usually agree with this most of the way and I mostly agree with this in usual circumstances. Dual adverbs ain’t pretty but they sometimes serve. What’s the rule? \*\* Gratuitous brag. On my last book the copyeditor told me that my prose was so engrossing he kept forgetting to do his job. Then he said it happens about 20% of the time, which somewhat reduced the glory. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/24 "2024-03-21T19:14:44Z")
I got an email newsletter from the New Yorker yesterday. The subject line was > “The Cat and the Hat” ’s Cold War Connection" (Quotation marks are theirs, not mine) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/25 "2024-03-21T19:38:52Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’m a strong advocate of aids like Strunk and White, even though the cognoscenti like to dump on that particular example today. If you’re a proponent of the little book, you and I can never be enemies. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/26 "2024-03-21T19:55:40Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I got an email newsletter from the New Yorker yesterday. The subject line was > > > “The Cat and the Hat” ’s Cold War Connection" > > (Quotation marks are theirs, not mine). This makes my eyes twitch. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/27 "2024-03-21T22:10:28Z")
From The New Yorker! Proud possessor of the world’s most ~~idiotic~~ idiosyncratic style guide. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/28 "2024-03-22T13:39:54Z")
To be fair, headlines/headings/heds are somewhat of a special case when it comes to style. I’d consider subject lines to be in the same general category. But that example still gives me a shiver. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/29 "2024-03-22T17:38:56Z")
It seems to be missing a quotation mark, too. (And there’s also an opening double quote, a closing double quote, and a vertical double quote there, though I assume that’s auto-formatting from the cut-and-paste into Discourse.) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/30 "2024-03-23T03:46:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It seems to be missing a quotation mark, too. Idk where that final quote mark came from. I didn’t manually add it. I already permanently deleted the email so I can’t check if I dropped a quote mark somewhere. The main thing is where it put the single quote mark - a space after the double quote mark, then the single quote mark. Like what BigT posted. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/31 "2024-03-23T03:48:14Z")
That would be the logical place if you’re adhering to style rules, I guess. Ugly as hell, but at least logical. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014/32 "2024-03-23T03:50:11Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > From The New Yorker! Proud possessor of the world’s most ~~idiotic~~ idiosyncratic style guide You’re not kidding! They really like holding on to tradition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-punctuate-this-possessive/999014.md?page=1)