This site seeks to "make the world a better place, one gift at a time." (changingthepresent.org) What a fantastic cause!I'd feel bad using such a cool site as a bad example if I didn't think its presence here might also gain some positive attention for its cause.
The mistake involves a troublesome apostrophe: "a holistic package addressing all the barriers that girls' face to ensure educational success." The apostrophe after girls is unnecessary because it's simply referring to more than one girl. We all learned our basic plural rules in elementary school, and this one is about as basic as they come. Say it with me now...if there's more than one of something you add an s! And that's it. It's not, "add an s and then throw an apostrophe in there somewhere."
While we're on the subject, let's discuss a common misconception about those Christmas cards you've been folding, sealing and addressing. No apostrophe necessary in the recipient's name. More than one Gibson (for example) at the home? Cool--add an s. Don't add an arbitrary apostrophe and leave the recipients wondering what should follow. The Gibson's what? The Gibson's house? The Gibson's cat??
We've covered a lot of grammar ground here. Now go make the world a better place, one charitable gift and one appropriately-used plural rule at a time.
2 comments:
Hi Alicia,
Thank you for the nice words about http://www.ChangingThePresent.org.
It’s no surprise that among the thousands of charitable gifts from hundreds of nonprofits (for instance, you can preserve an acre of wilderness, fund an hour of cancer research; restore a blind person’s eyesight with cataract surgery), at least one organization’s typo would slip past us. Thanks for catching it so we can make the correction
Since you mention Christmas cards, I have to mention that ChangingThePresent even lets you personalize a beautiful, printed greeting card, which includes a photo and description of your gift, right from the site.
I hope your readers will explore the site and share it with their friends. Imagine the impact we can make together as we start to channel to nonprofits some of the $250 billion Americans now spend each year buying traditional presents.
(Disclosure: ChangingThePresent is one of our clients).
I love that you looked at the blog! I certainly wasn't expecting that.
I also completely understand the occasional typo and find them in my own work too. When I do, I use myself as a bad example.
I told the marketing director for the nonprofit I work with about your site and we're going to get ourselves updated and on there.
Keep up the good work: it is certainly a worthwhile effort!
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