Write with Style: Apostrophes and Lists

Last month, I talked about style guides in general terms. Today, it’s time to get down to specific examples. With apologies for the delay in this follow-up post (I’ve had a few manuscripts to edit!) I want to talk about lists, and everyone’s favorite abused punctuation mark, the apostrophe.

Style guides are particularly important during line and copyediting. If this post looks a little fussy, that’s because the guidelines are—on purpose. Details are the whole point. This (mostly) is not what you need to think about while you wrestle with that first draft or chapter outline (well, except maybe the apostrophe. But we’ll get there).

Remember, the point of style guidelines is consistency in the service of clarity. We want to be consistent with what we do, so we’re consistently clear. And as a reminder, this information comes from the Chicago Manual of Style. Get thee away from me, AP users, with your strange rules!

For heaven’s sake! Ways you should (and should not) use the apostrophe

And you thought I was going to say the comma was the most abused punctuation mark.

No, dear friends. The comma is the mark everyone, even editors, constantly disagree on. Editors do agree on the apostrophe; it’s the writers who constantly get it, well…wrong.

Never ever ever use the apostrophe for plurals. Don’t do it. We don’t write about ten car’s, five notebook’s, or a hundred tree’s (I’m shuddering even typing these examples).

I’m consistently amazed by how pervasive this habit is. I’d love to know how it got started. If you have any clues, please share!

There is literally one exception to this rule (in CMOS), making the plural of a lowercase letter:

• Lowercase—mind your p’s and q’s
• Uppercase—Sally got straight As at Stanford.

That’s it.

Use the apostrophe to demonstrate:

• Possession: that book belongs to Penelope—Penelope’s book
• Missing letters: contractions—wasn’t, I’m, didn’t

When using the apostrophe to show possession:

Be kind to your apostrophe!

Lists aren’t sentences

…Except when they are. But let’s backtrack a moment.

If you’re a fiction writer, you probably won’t be using many lists. But in nonfiction, lists are a real head-scratcher, almost (but not quite) on the level of apostrophes in terms of their confused use.

Lists should be all apples or all oranges (grammatically speaking). You want to use parallel construction, which means the same pattern of words. Heard the expression, “One of these things is not like the other”? This is not the place for fruit salad (unless you’re listing the ingredients). When the word patterns don’t line up, parallel construction is probably missing.

[Parallel] Mary likes:

• Hiking in the mountains
• Swimming at the beach
• Riding her bicycle around town

[Not Parallel] Mary likes:

• Hiking in the mountains
• Days she swims at the beach
• To ride her bicycle around town

Lists should not have end punctuation, unless the items form complete sentences. You’ll notice that the above examples do not have any end punctuation. By contrast, with complete sentences, your list should look like this:

To fix a flat tire on your bike:

1. Remove the wheel from the frame.
2. Separate the tire from the wheel.
3. Repair the punctured tube, or replace with a new tube.
4. Re-attach the tire to the wheel, and the wheel to the frame.

Sometimes you may wish to punctuate a list as a complete sentence, in which case you don’t use a colon before the list and you don’t capitalize each item. Most of these types of lists work better as run-in text (part of the regular paragraph). What’s you’re good reason for breaking them out this way?

To fix a flat tire on your bike, make sure that you

remove the wheel from the frame,
separate the tire from the wheel,
repair or replace the punctured tube,
and then re-attach the tire to the wheel, and the wheel to the frame.

Other things to keep in mind, especially if you have a lot of lists:

• Use the same format for your bullets or numbering scheme—I can’t tell you how often manuscripts will use three or four types of lists, willy-nilly
• Avoid lists that get too complex with sub-items—a table or chart might work better
• Decide whether a list is the best way to convey your information—too many lists are as tiring to read as pages of text with no breaks at all

You’d be amazed how confusing things can get during copyediting. Writers use lists to be clear, but we can easily shoot ourselves in the foot with how we construct them. Be careful; re-read.

Bottom Line

If you’ve got a good editor and proofreader, they’ll help you catch all of these instances. However, it never hurts to practice good writing hygiene and eliminate your errors before they go any further. The less “basic” errors and inconsistencies you have, the more your editor can focus on bigger details.

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Think your manuscript is ready for an edit? Working out those first draft blues? Let’s chat!

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