Poll: How Do You Teach Writing Decades As Numbers?

[Crimson Wife]

DH and I have a rather heated discussion about this yesterday that included the phrases "I don't care what the grammar book says" and "I don't care how the New York Times does it". So when you are teaching your children to write out decades as numbers, do you include an apostrophe or not?

 

Poll should show up shortly.

[Farrar]

Okay, I have no clue. I think of 1980's - with an apostrophe - as being correct, but *is* it really?

 

That's the sort of argument dh and I would have too. :D

[Dana]

I worked briefly as a copy editor. Different projects would have different style guides (at that time we generally used the Chicago Manual of Style, I think). We went by whatever that style guide said.

 

So pick your family style guide and go with it.

 

You could mix it up some too so your kids get used to changes.

My understanding is that most colleges now are MLA or APA with the occasional Chicago tossed in. And in some cases, you could have papers due using two different style guides since different programs use different guides. :D

[zenjenn]

I think it is important to teach our kids the what is technically correct and also NOT to be obnoxious know-it-all snobs about it. Some things are correct due to general consensus even if that consensus has not yet made it into grammar books or dictionaries.

 

How did ANYTHING get to be the "rule" or "correct" in the first place? Only because human beings reached a consensus, right?

 

Scientists classify a tomato as a fruit, but it is acceptable to call it a vegetable because people generally call tomatoes a vegetable because it is savory and not sweet. "Zen" is not technically an adjective synonymous with tranquil, but people use it that way and therefore the word has taken on another informal definition. One should not technically pluralize numbers with apostrophes, but it is done frequently enough to be considered acceptable.

 

Now as a TEACHER, it is quite reasonable for you to impose whatever requirements YOU have for YOUR assignments. I would correct the apostrophes, but I wouldn't render it irrelevant that major national newspapers use them in the same situation. It may get on your nerves, but it is not just flat-out irrelevant/wrong. That is exactly how rules, definitions, spellings, etc, change and become universal over time.

[Crimson Wife]

1980s - plural noun

1980's - apostrophe shows possesion

 

This is the argument my DH was trying to make but Warriner's disagrees.

 

Use an apostrophe and an s to form the plurals of letters, numerals, and symbols, and of words referred to as words.

 

Examples: There are two d's in the word "hidden".

Your 2's look like backward 5's.

Jazz became quite popular in the 1920's.

[boscopup]

I think I saw the same grammar rules you reference in R&S maybe? I'll have to look it up...

[ereks mom]

R&S English 8, p. 156:

 

"For dates, the plural form is usually written without an apostrophe.

Many pioneers of the 1800s (or 1800's) endured severe hardships."