AboutDan Smith Expertise I have been a professional writer and editor for more than 30 years, taught speech and English composition at the university level, and have developed speech and English composition courses and seminars for businesses. I am experienced in editing a wide variety of materials, especially business, scientific, and other academic papers. I am familiar with all the major style guides.
Experience I have edited any number of graduate papers and other technical materials in such advanced fields as clinical psychology, civil and electrical engineering, and semiconductor fabrication. I have extensive experience in working with non-native English speakers.
Question In English "s" following a family name preceded by "the" refers to the entire family, e.g., the Obamas or the Smiths, but are there cases where an apostrophe is required as in the Bushs' (or should it simply be "the Bushes". The Chinese surname Li, for example, is the correct form "the Lis" or should we introduce a punctuation to make it clear we are referring to the Li family, not something else. Am I correct to say that there shouldn't be any punctuation, whatsoever? How about a surname that ends in s?
Answer Apostrophes are properly used to make possessives. But this is something that has become much confused, thanks largely to the New York Times' mistaken decision to use apostrophes to pluralize acronyms and numbers to accommodate its all-cap headline style. The world would have been a better place had the Times simply gone to a mixed-case headline. I do not use apostrophes to make plurals.
