Q. I am agitated about the institutional inconsistency on this point and found the College Board to be of no help, so I turn to you. What is the proper treatment of an associate degree? As I have stated it, or is it “associates” or “associate’s”?
Q. Which is the correct singular possessive form? “Professor Davis’ class” or “Professor Davis’s class”? My history professor specifically requests our guide be the CMOS. Am I wrong that CMOS promotes both usages in this case?
Q. I just received a thank-you card from a recently married couple. Their card said, “Thank you for coming to John and I’s wedding.” I know this is incorrect, but what is the proper way of saying this? Wouldn’t “John’s and my wedding” suggest two separate weddings instead of one joint wedding? But “Thank you for coming to John and my wedding” doesn’t sound correct, either. Please help. This might drive me nuts.
Q. I’m writing a book about Death Valley National Park, and not sure what style to use for place-names that include possessives. The National Park Service omits apostrophes from all names—Scottys Castle, Dantes View, Devils Golf Course, etc.—which looks wrong to me. On the other hand, if I use the apostrophes my book won’t match the Park Service maps. What would you suggest?
Q. I’ve encountered a sentence that is giving me more confusion than it should. The sentence in question is this: “Enjoyment is not as an important function for courting as it is for dating.” I cannot figure out if it should read “as important a function.” I think if I could figure out what grammatical function “as” is serving in this sentence, I could make sense of it, but I have been staring at it long enough to addle my brain.
Q. I’m editing a book about employment training programs, and I can’t decide how to treat the term One-Stop Career Centers. I capitalize in that instance, but what about when the author says “one-stops” or “one-stop centers”? I am inclined to capitalize only when the entire title is used, but I’m having trouble sticking to that decision. Can you please tell me what you would do?
Q. What is the proper way to cite information found in a footnote? Take, for example, the following footnote: “2. It is however to be observed that in the given proposition there is a certain ambiguity.” I wish to cite this in the footnote of my own paper. In some works, I’ve seen what I suspect to be the same thing accomplished by appending the page number with “f,” e.g., 67f.
Q. We’re hosting a golf tournament where each hole has a refreshment station sponsored by a corporate vendor. For each of the hole signs, we wrote “Refreshments Sponsor” and then put the corporate logo on it. My coworker says each sign should read “Refreshment Sponsor” with the argument that you wouldn’t say “Beverages Sponsor.” What say you?
Q. What is the correct punctuation for an event or location for a group? I have the following examples: delegates’ reception, members’ forum, speakers’ room. Is it correct to always use the apostrophe in this way? Thanks.
Q. Our pastor’s surname is Lentz. He is married with children, so there are several people named Lentz living in his house. When an event is scheduled to occur at his home, should we refer to it as “the Lentz’ house,” “the Lentz’s house,” or simply “the Lentz house”?