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HOW DO I USE THE APOSTROPHE CORRECTLY?
by Kathy McLain, M.A.  

The apostrophe plus the letter "s" is used to signal possession and is added to the end of a noun--dog, man, Jones, and so forth.

Noun	Possessive	Plural	Plural/Possessive
dog	dog's	dogs	dogs'
man	man's	men	men's
Jones	Jones'	Joneses	Joneses' or Joneses's

Some people try to add apostrophes to pronouns to show possession.  Pronouns do not show possession by adding an apostrophe and then an "s."  Instead, pronouns show possession by a form change--"it" becomes "its,"  "he"  becomes "his,"  "they" becomes "theirs."

Mistakes with possession usually occur for two reasons:  a student is confusing plural (add "s") with possessive (add apostrophe and "'s") or confusing nouns and pronouns.  Be sure you understand the difference between plural and possessive and difference between nouns and pronouns.

Problems with possessives occur with some frequency in student writing.  Possessive errors are not appropriate in college level writing.