Our best writing tip? Edit for clarity and brevity with WordRake. It’s an automated in-line editor that checks for needless words, cumbersome phrases, clichés, and more.
It’s Saturday. Mid-morning. The market bursts with chicory and kohlrabi and chevre from only ten miles away. Signs sprout like the produce: leek’s, beet’s, brussel sprout’s. And it’s okay if a farmer mistakenly sticks an apostrophe into a word meant to be a simple plural: a sign for turnip’s will not prevent us from buying good ones.
For a lawyer, it’s not okay, because clients pay us to represent them to intelligent readers who know the difference. Forming possessives correctly sends the message to those readers that we know and we care; therefore, they should.
Use only the ’ for words in category #4: boats’. The only exception is its which is already possessive; it’s is reserved for the contraction “it is.”
If you’re wondering: Farmers in the heading has no apostrophe because it isn’t possessive; it’s plural; like the turnips.
WordRake is editing software designed by writing expert and New York Times bestselling author Gary Kinder. Like an editor or helpful colleague, WordRake ripples through your document checking for needless words and cumbersome phrases. Its complex algorithms find and improve weak lead-ins, confusing language, and high-level grammar and usage slips.
WordRake runs in Microsoft Word and Outlook, and its suggestions appear in the familiar track-changes style. If you’ve used track changes, you already know how to use WordRake. There’s nothing to learn and nothing to interpret. Editing for clarity and brevity has never been easier.
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