Avoiding Random Apostrophes

So many apostrophes swinging in the wind, floating randomly at the end of things, unable to latch on to anything coherent.

Before you attach one of these random waifs to any part of your memo, email, announcement, or article, hold back. Pause. Think it through. Only attach it if it makes sense.

Before:

Team Members: The stock rooms  at both the Jackson and Whitehall campus’ will be closed on Monday.

After:

Team Members: The stock rooms at both the Jackson and Whitehall campuses will be closed on Monday.

To make something plural, you generally do not add an apostrophe. The plural of campus is campuses. If in doubt, Google it. 

(c)2014 Suzann Kale

Tags: punctuation, grammar, apostrophes, plural, business writing, technical writing