Apostrophes in Acronyms????

[Soquili]

Sorry John we seem to be having a common language but separate understanding of the term contraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraction_(grammar)

[zaphodeist]

Just me being dense actually [it is 06:00 here! ]

[Soquili]

Early to rise or staying up late addicted to Xara?

I know, staying up late (again).

[Karateed]

My understanding is that the apostrophe is used 2 ways.....one to show possession and the other to show missing letters. In possession situations there are no missing letters.

I think one of the problems of the apostrophe is today's school system and dumbing down of the english language. The other serious detractment for the use is the internet itself where everything is typed fast and 'close' to correct for understanding only. How many times have we seen a message left on this board that uses short forms of words to save typing....obviously a texter would do this type of thing mostly but many shorten words that weren't meant to be shortened so.

It's actually sad to see but hasn't driven me around the bend. It just lets me know that I've been better edjumacated.

[angelize]

You are exactly right Ed. I think that those of us who find this annoying and actually take the time to use the apostrophe correctly are old enough to remember life without cell phones or laptops, and our parents taught us to respect our teachers. Back in those days too, at least here, our schools were properly funded and there were always enough textbooks and children who needed testing for learning disabilities didn't have to wait years to get it.

[zaphodeist]

Errrm ... talking about using "apostrophes" properly ...

[Karateed]

Well, to be fair John, those aren't apostrophes (can we spell typo here?). We would have to open a new thread on the proper use of commas, possibly a can of worms we don't really want to open from judging this topic, wouldn't you agree?