The best way to learn something is to teach it. Peter Drucker, the legendary management guru, discovered this when he was a sophomore in high school. He had a close friend who had difficulty in learning Latin, Greek and math. Before we go on with Drucker's story, why would I capitalize the two languages but leave out math as math in the previous sentence? That's how it should be. If, however, a subject appears in a course title, like in Physics 210, then it is appropriate to capitalize it, otherwise only the languages need to be capitalized.
Back to Drucker and his friend who was slow in those three subjects. And so Drucker started teaching him. What did Drucker discover? Six weeks after he started teaching his friend, he had climbed to top of his class. And no wonder that he started enjoying all the three subjects.
Well, taking a cue from Drucker, I am going to study the most respected and recommended book on writing: The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White. But unlike Drucker, in this case, the student and teacher are not two, but the same person. No choice and let me begin with the first lesson.
Lesson # 1: Adding 's to form possessive singular of nouns
A. Seems like a straightforward thing. Just add 's regardless of the final consonant.
Amir's next film
Bush's exit
Thames's
A(E). As usual, there are exceptions to the above rule.
- Ancient proper names ending in -es and -is: Moses' laws, Isis' temple
- Jesus'
- forms like for conscience' sake and for righteousness' sake
B. Pronominal possessives: hers, theirs, its, theirs, yours, ours
This house is ours.
Theirs is a nice campus.
Is this pen yours?
C. When it comes to indefinite pronouns, however, one must use 's to show possession.
What about one's rights?
It seems like someone else's book.
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