Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Grammar Rules

As writers, we at The Content Factor often discuss questions of grammar and punctuation.  Yesterday, Paul needed to know whether the possessive of “business” is “business’,” with just an apostrophe added, or “business’s,” with the apostrophe and an “s.”  Thanks to the Internet, we now have some wonderful resources to help us answer these questions.  The answer: add an apostrophe and the “s,” even though “business” ends with an “s,” to form “business’s.”  I would have steered him wrong—I’m glad Paul looked it up!

One of my favorite resources for questions of grammar is Grammar Girl, who has a podcast on iTunes, and www.quickanddirtytips.com.  One of my recent favorites is the one entitled, ‘It Is I’ Versus ‘It Is Me’” in which Grammar Girl explains which one of these phrases is correct grammar, and why.  The bottom line is that one is correct, but one is common.  I appreciate Grammar Girl’s position that:

I believe it's best to know the traditional rules and then if you decide to break them you can do so knowingly and with conviction.

You rule, Grammar Girl!