Question

I have the following sentence:

SPCC/Storage Tank Program's support contract personnel received Weston Solutions' 2011 Blue Ribbon Client Engagement Award.

Should "Solutions'" be "s'" or "s's"?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Here's the rule:

If the 's' makes the word plural it is s'.
Otherwise it is 's.

If I'm not mistaken Weston Solutions is the name not Weston Solution, therefore s's would be correct as weird as it looks, but let me double check Gregg's just to be sure.

Answer 2

Yes, our company name is Weston Solutions (with the s). I always thought that if the word ended with an 's', you would put the apostrophe at the end and call it a day, e.g. Charles'.

Answer 3

That is one style. The other is to simply ignore such endings, and use the 's regardless. The Chicago Manual of Style used to recommend simply appending the apostrophe for words that ended in a "z" sound or for words of, I believe, three syllables or more. The current edition dispenses with that recommendation.

I'm citing from memory, but in any event, there are two styles out there. If your company (or whatever context in which you are writing) is following a particular style guide, you'd use whatever style is recommended in that guide. If there is no style guide, pick one style and stick with it. If the environment is academic, the right answer depends upon the style the instructor has discussed in class (or the style evident in the source materials).

Answer 4

Okay here's what Gregg's says:

To form a possessive of a singular noun that ends in an s sound, be guided by the way you pronounce the word.
If a new syllable is formed in the pronunciation of the possessive, ad an 's:
your boss's approval
Congress's intention
If the addition of an extra syllable would make a word ending in an s hard to pronounce, add the apostrophe only:
Mr. Hastings' proposal
Texas' best-known writer

So with that rule in mind it would be Solutions' because Solutions's (or solutionses) is too hard to pronounce.

Answer 5

Great, thanks for the help and citing some sources too! Our technical writing manual doesn't explicitly say which form to use.

Considering all of the above, I think Solutions' is definitely the way to go.

Thanks again!

Answer 6

However, in The Chicago Manual of Style, at par. 7.17, the guideline is this --

In a return to Chicago's earlier practice, words and names ending in an unpronounced s form the possessive in the usual way (with the addition of an apostrophe and an s). This practice not only recognizes that the additional s is often pronounced but adds to the appearance of consistency with the possessive forms of other types of proper nouns.

Exs.
Descartes's three dreams
the marquis's mother
Albert Camus's novels


It really all depends upon which style guide is in force. Chicago is the manual used throughout the publishing industry. In academics, it would be typically either the MLA (for the humanities) or the APA (for the social sciences). I'm not sure what style the hard sciences follow. In journalism, it would be AP style.

Answer 7

In the realm of technical writing, Chicago is generally the starting point, and house styles typically build on it.

Answer 8

But the s in this case is not unpronounced. Solutions does end in an s sound.

Answer 9

Well, that's true. I pursued the pronunciation route because bigalpha cited a singular name (Charles') as an example, and because your citation from the Gregg Reference Manual referred to pronunciation. Both of those are tangential to the original question, in which a plural noun is at issue. I should have also included from Chicago the follow-on paragraph, in which names such as "Euripides" and "Xerxes" are now spelled (in this style) with the traditional apostrophe s. So, if you were to follow Chicago, it would be Charles's (not Charles') and the point about pronunciation in the earlier posting would have nothing to do with it.

Singular nouns and irregular plurals (like "children" for example) take the apostrophe s. Plural nouns take only the apostrophe, which follows the s that marks the plural. Pronunciation doesn't come into the picture. That's, again, by Chicago's standards.

Chicago (at pars. 7.17, 7.18, and 7.21) directly contradicts the style espoused in Gregg at par. 631, which is where your citation a few comments back comes from. The Gregg guideline with respect to regular plurals is at par. 632.

Here's an interesting point: the company name is in the plural -- that is, the noun is plural -- but the name itself is not treated as a plural. It takes a singular verb. It is treated as a single entity. Interesting . . . ought this to have an effect on how one construes its possessive? (I think that's kind of a "how many angles can dance on the head of a pin" kind of question.)

Answer 10

Angels, angels! lol . . .

Answer 11

Yes. Although the noun solutions is plural the proper noun Solutions is not. Therefore, it should be treated with the same rules that govern singular nouns ending in the s sound. But it doesn't really matter which way you look at it it will still be Solutions'

Answer 12

Ummm, well if you get into pronunciation, you're back in the realm of differing styles. If you consider it only from the point of view of its being plural, then the style is the same, regardless of which style guide you're following.

(Heading out for a bit. If I fall silent now, it's only for that reason.)

Answer 13

If it were me writing a paper for class, I would use Solutions'. But it is highly likely that either way I go is going to be ignored, unless the instructor is a stickler for these things, in which case I would ask which (s)he preferred.

Answer 14

We go by APA 6th Ed. and The Gregg Reference Manual.

Answer 15

Ah, and we follow Chicago, as does every company I've ever worked for within the tech industry. In terms of class, yes, you'd want to know the style the instructor follows.

But in this case, since the company name *is* in the plural, I think the wisest course is to follow the standard for plural possessives, which is, as you say, to add the apostrophe only. My point is only that the guideline regarding pronunciation (which differs from style to style) doesn't come into play here.