apostrophe
George Bernard Shaw, a proponent of English spelling reform on phonetic principles, argued that the apostrophe was mostly redundant. He did not use it for spelling cant or hes when writing Pygmalion. He did however allow I'm and it's. Hubert Selby, Jr. used a slash instead of an apostrophe mark for contractions and did not use an apostrophe at all for possessives. Lewis Carroll made greater use of apostrophes, and frequently used sha'n't. Neither author's use has become widespread.
Incorrect use of the apostrophe is widespread, and the abuse of the punctuation mark generates heated debate. The British founder of The Apostrophe Protection Society earned a 2001 Ig Nobel prize for "efforts to protect, promote and defend the differences between plural and possessive". A 2004 report by OCR, a British examination board, stated that "the inaccurate use of the apostrophe is so widespread as to be almost universal". A 2008 survey found that nearly half of the UK adults polled were unable to use the apostrophe correctly.
Misused apostrophes are often referred to as "greengrocers' apostrophes", "rogue apostrophes" or "idiot's apostrophes" (a literal translation of the German word Deppenapostroph which criticises the misapplication of apostrophes in Denglisch).
Apostrophe Protection Society Website Apostrophe Protection Society
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Originally Posted by Alec Horan
