Re: Tricky Possessives

[Matt Ion <soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM>]

On Wed, 9 Jul 1997 09:31:08 -0700, Nicole Cvetkovic wrote:

>Greetings from rainy Victoria,

Hi back from sunny Vancouver!

>Was wondering if any of you grammar wizards had a suggestion for the
>following:
>
>In making first reference to my subject (Seed Planning and Registry
>System), I want to want to bracket the acronym (SPAR) immediately
>following the initial reference. However, I also need to form a
>possessive (Seed Planning and Registry System's) in the same sentence.
>What, then, should go in the bracket?

IMHO, once the acronym has been defined, you shouldn't have to
re-define it, especially in the same sentence.  Legal and semi-legal
documents would generally reinforce this with a statement like "Blah
blah... Seed Planning and Registry System (hereafter known as SPAR)_..
blah blah," but I doubt such precision is required in your case.

It seems to me, once you've indicated that "Seed Planning and Registry
System" is abbreviated as SPAR, you should be able to safely use "SPAR"
and its variations ("SPAR's") throughout the rest of the document.  If
you want to be extra safe, you could add it to a glossary.



 Your friend and mine,
 Matt
 <insert standard disclaimer here>
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