Apostrophe or Foot Mark? That Is the Question
Want to really perturb a typesetter? It’s easy—just use a footmark where an apostrophe should go. Out of place punctuation is a foible so common into today’s publishing that it’s almost become comical.
See this PubToon for an illustration.
The apostrophe ( ’, often rendered incorrectly as 
) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets. In English, it serves three purposes:
- The omission of one or more letters (as in the contraction of do not to don’t).
- The marking of possessive case (as in the cat’s whiskers).
- The marking as plural of written items that are not words established in English orthography1 (as in P’s and Q’s, the late 1950′s).
The apostrophe (’) is different from the closing single quotation mark, (usually rendered identically but serving a different purpose), and from the similar-looking prime (), also known as a foot mark, which is used to indicate measurement in feet.
This is The Heart of the Conflict!
It has been such a matter of debate that it was “officially” recognized as a problem:
Failure to observe standard use of the apostrophe is widespread and frequently criticized as incorrect, often generating heated debate. The British founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society earned a 2001 Ig Nobel (ignoble) prize for “efforts to protect, promote and defend the differences between plural and possessive.”
The Apostrophe Protection Society is a UK society that has “the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark.” It was founded in 2001 by John Richards, retired sub-editor, in response to his observations of widespread incorrect use of the apostrophe. The website includes many examples of apostrophe abuse, but is intended to help correct, rather than chide, offenders. Richards has a standard polite letter that explains the basic rules for apostrophe use, which he sends to supporters to forward on to offending businesses and other organizations.
© Schiller Renato – Fotolia.com
The shape of the apostrophe comes from manuscript writing, as a point with a downwards curving tail curving clockwise. This form was passed on as the typographic apostrophe (’), familiar to us as the typeset apostrophe, or the commonly known, curly apostrophe. Then the typewriter was invented and a “neutral” quotation mark form () was created to save space on the keyboard, by using a single key to do the work of the apostrophe, both opening and closing quotation marks, and single primes. This is called the typewriter apostrophe or vertical apostrophe.
You can find the real (typographic) apostrophe everywhere in typeset material, but it is more work to use it on a computer, since there is not a key for it on a standard keyboard. Beyond the realm of professional typesetting, many of us don’t know how to enter this punctuation mark and instead we use the dreaded foot mark or typewriter apostrophe ().
On the internet, because of the unbiased nature of web publishing, and the low resolution of computer monitors, (compared to print), the foot mark has been acceptable. The correct form is beginning to show up more often due to improvements in modern operating systems and desktop-publishing software.
What Can You Do in the Meantime?
There are different fixes according to what software you are using. You can find suggestions at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe (under the sub-heading Computing)
There is a wealth of information available for anyone interested in learning the intricacies of punctuation. You can find it to avoid the “perturb” side of the debate or merely to appear more intelligent to the “punctuation police.”
1or·thog·ra·phy
The art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage; correct spelling.
Additional Resources
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe
- http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/?page_id=1322
- http://webdesignledger.com/tips/common-typography-mistakes-apostrophes-versus-quotation-marks
Further Study
Learn more about this subject with these helpful articles:
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