Gramer Girl here, I'm Mignon Fogarty and you can think of me as your friendly guide to

the English language.

Writing, History, Rules, and Cool Stuff.

Today I have a meeting middle about apostrophes, another meeting middle about writing for

people with dyslexia, and a family-like story about vacation.

You didn't realize it at the time, but last week was part one of apostrophes, and today

is part two.

I said it in the last episode about apostrophes, and I'll say it again.

There are some confusing situations when it comes to apostrophes.

For example, Christine from Portland, Oregon, Judy from Trevor City, Michigan, Katie from

Australia, Kristie from Washington, D.C., and Rick from Las Vegas, Nevada, all asked

how to make a singular word that ends in S possessive.

And I know that this is a raging debate, even at the highest levels of government, because

Tracy from Mountain View, California, and a listener named Armon, both sent me a funny

article a while ago describing US Supreme Court squabbles over making the word Kansas possessive.

Words such as Kansas that end with an S can be stumpers when it comes to apostrophes.

Is it Kansas's statute with an apostrophe S?

Or Kansas's statute with just an apostrophe at the end?

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion and left off the extra S referring to Kansas's

statute with just an apostrophe at the end.

Whereas Justice David Souter wrote the dissenting opinion and used a double S at the end of Kansas,

writing about Kansas's statute with an apostrophe before the final S.

...