>On Sep 4, 2009, at 9:52 AM, shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
>>srsly? back when I was publishing on habermas, i did a massive inquiry as
>>to which was the ultimately correct approach: habermas' or habermas's. it
>>bugged me that i could never find a definitive answer.
>
>FWIW, this is the very first rule in _The Elements of Style_ by Strunk &
>White, everyone's favorite tiny quotable grammar authority:
>
><begin excerpt>
>
>1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's.
>
>Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,
>
> Charles's friend
> Burns's poems
> the witch's malice
yah. i've had a copy of s&w since i was 12. wouldn't know it wouldja? *grin*
but the problem is, if you submit an article, and others use a different style, then you have to change it. which is why i went on a search for the One, True Answer long ago. Never got one, of course. As Eric said, it's like the serial comma. The story is, the serial comma was abandoned in certain print formats because it wasted less space. Whether that's a legend or not, I don't know. But people will explain the rationale that way regardless as to its veracity. I prefer serial comma for the very reasons Sandy Harris is likely to jump into the conversation to explain. *wink* But as Eric said, it depends on what kind of pub you're writing for.
Standards! Damn it! Standards! :)
shag