Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Apostrophe?

I'm reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss and it's got me wondering - do we need an apostrophe in the title Scribblers Cove?

When I titled this blog I looked up Sharks Cove and Pirates Cove on the internet, and about half the time there was an apostrophe and half the time there wasn't. I chose to go with no apostrophe because it looks cleaner.

But maybe I'm irritating all the punctuation sticklers out there.

I don't want to call it Scribbler's Cove because there's more than one scribbler here. The plural would be Scribblers' Cove, which I suppose would be okay. The apostrophe implies ownership. But without an apostrophe, scribblers becomes a perfectly acceptable descriptive word, right? This is the cove where scribblers are found.

What do you think? Any editors out there?

8 comments:

  1. It never bothered me, I didn't even really think about the apostrophe. I always just thought of it as the name of the cove.

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  2. I am a total freak about all that punctuation crap, and it doesn't bother me. I love it. For Heavens Sake - its your blog... you should make it what you want it to be. :)

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  3. I love that book! And yeah, I'm all for no apostrophe. We don't own the cove, we merely define it, maybe?

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  4. I'm for no apostrophe, too. More democratic that way, a gathering place. Which reminds me, I haven't posted in a long time... (sorry!).

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  5. You be the captain, we'll follow your lead.

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  6. ARRRGH! Well, then, mateys, we let the name o' the cove stand as it be now.

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  7. I'll second that, Rebecca. What's artistic license for if it's never used?

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  8. I love that book, too. I would have used the apostrophe, but then I'm one of those weird people that writes "farmers' market" and "Mothers' Day" too. If you want to define, rather than claim, the cove, then going without is perfectly fine - I consider myself a stickler, but it won't irritate me :)

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