by Jennie Ruby
Of course the possessive form normally requires an apostrophe, as in Tom's car or Ella's toy. Even when there is an s on the end of a singular name, you use an apostrophe to show ownership, as in Charles' car or the business' location. Some style guides have you add another s to follow pronunciation, as in Charles's car or the business's location. But is there ever a time when you don't use the apostrophe?
Yes. In expressions such as writers group, users group, or workers union, you do not need an apostrophe. These plural words ending in s act more as a label describing the kind of group rather than as a possessive showing ownership.
Some proper names of organizations, however, do contain an apostrophe, as in Reserve Officers' Training Corps. The best practice is to look up exactly how the organization spells the name. You may find Childrens Hospital or National Governors' Association or Elmer's glue. You may find Mrs. Fields cookies, but Taster's Choice coffee.
Although I would love to give a definitive answer here, there is no logic to the way organizations are named. The only possible advice is just Google the website.
Happy hunting!
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About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.
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Join Jennie in our online classes (she'll be teaching two upcoming classes for IconLogic): Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts and Editing with Microsoft Word 2007.