49 She has a hard time pronouncing s’s.
My street address contains three 5’s.
He packed a week’s worth of clothing.
The project was the result of a year’s worth of work.
7. Show possession in the last word when using names of organizations and busi-
nesses, in hyphenated words, and in joint ownership:
Sam and Janet’s graduation was three months ago.
I went to visit my great-grandfather’s alma mater.
The Future Farmers of America’s meeting was moved to Monday.
8. Apostrophes form contractions by taking the place of the missing letter or num-
ber. Do not use contractions in highly formal written presentations.
Poor form: We’re going out of town next week.
Good form: We are going out of town next week.
Poor form: She’s going to write the next proposal.
Good form: She is going to write the next proposal.
Poor form: My supervisor was in the class of ’89.
Good form: My supervisor was in the class of 1989.
ITS VERSUS IT’S Unlike most possessives, its does not contain an apostrophe. The word it’s is
instead a contraction of the words it is. The second i is removed, and replaced by
an apostrophe.
When revising your writing, say the words it is when you come across it’s or its. If
they make sense, you should be using the contraction. If they don’t, you need the pos-
sessive form, its, without an apostrophe.
