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I can well believe that Meena's boss argued for hours over this point.
This scenario took me back to my days in the Army (a looong time ago),
when a commander was overheard telling one of his lieutenants,
"Lieutenant, if I tell you the sky is green, then you may say once,
respectfully, 'Sir, the sky is blue.' But if I tell you again the sky
is green, then the sky is green."
For some people the sky will always be green. I keep a copy of "The
Elements of Style," "The Elements of Technical Writing," a grammar book,
and our company style guide on my desk. Helps head off those style
questions before they become long, drawn out arguments (Does the comma
really go here? Is the word "main" capitalized in "Main menu"?).
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Lewis [SMTP:lewism -at- brandle -dot- com -dot- au]
> Sent: Friday, December 19, 1997 12:26 AM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Re: Query
>
> Meena S wrote:
> >
> > Got into an argument with my boss and came out thoroughly confused.
> Should the "its " appear with an apostrophe ?
> > " services company dedicated to making its customers more
> productive "
>
> I'm not sure I believe this. Surely people would only put an
> apostrophe
> here through casual ignorance -- not through wilful perversity. You
> mean
> your boss actually attempted to *defend* this (mis)use of an
> apostrophe?
> Sheesh.
> --
> Michael Lewis
> Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia
> PO Box 1249, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012
> Suite 8, The Watertower, 1 Marian St, Redfern 2016
> Tel +61-2-9310-2224 ... Fax +61-2-9310-5056
>
>