Email to Sydney Writers' Centre 14/10/10

I’m not usually one to argue with Grammar Girl, but I personally disagree with the lack of possessive apostrophe in “mens room”.

In these cases, the room DOES belong to the men (if X is FOR Y then doesn’t X belong to Y? E.g.: if the dress is FOR me, then it BELONGS to me). The same applies to “farmers markets” – the markets DO actually belong to the farmers as they have the responsibility of running them.

Some organisations do choose to use correct grammar; for example “The Children’s Hospital at Westmead”. The hospital is FOR the children and therefore it BELONGS to them, even if they don’t actually own the building.

Funnily enough, your own organisation, Sydney Writers' Centre, also uses the possessive apostrophe.

I recently conducted a Readers’ Survey for my company magazine – a survey OF the readers – and therefore it belongs to them.

I think, technically, if “mens” was an adjective, then it would simply be “man” – just like we refer to a “computer room” and not a “computers room”. “Mens” is not even a word because you can’t have a plural of a plural. I actually cannot think of a single example where a plural would be used as an adjective: coat room, dish washer, cup holder, letter box, photo album. In all of these things the second noun is designed to contain multiples of the first, but we always describe those as singular. The two words then combine to provide a new noun that is more specific. In my example above, if I wanted to just describe the survey, I would have called it a “Reader Survey”, not a “Readers Survey” without the apostrophe.

I guess what I’m saying is there is no distinction between an adjective and a possessive noun in these instances. If you can find me an example of where a noun is used, plurally, to describe another noun, and is NOT possessive, then I’m genuinely prepared to eat my words. I have actually spent the last half hour trying to challenge my own argument so that I don’t look like an idiot when I send this email.

I think the apostrophe is missing either through years of laziness forming a habit in the industry, or because it simply looks neater on the sign. I have no problem with it being acceptable, just as long as people know WHY it is acceptable. Just like “Drive Thru” is incorrect but acceptable.

All good writers break the rules sometimes. I do it myself. Often. The important thing to me is that I know I have broken the rules for a practical purpose. I can live with a missing possessive apostrophe if I know it is just because it saves space on a sign. If I believe that the apostrophe is missing because the writer didn’t realise that it was actually possessive, then I get a little bit angry on the inside.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass on the feedback that I think your ‘clarification’ actually confused the issue and I’m sure the reader who questioned the lack of apostrophe in “mens room” would have been happy enough to accept that it is just a commonly broken rule.

It has taken me far too long to write this email so I’d better get back to work.

In the mean time, please keep up the good work. I really do enjoy the weekly grammar tips, and even if I don’t agree with them, I am thankful that there are still some people in this world who care enough to debate them.