I seem to be procrastinating about finishing my car waxing, but I will offer
one more bit of authority on this subject. For reasons of clutter, I can't put
my hands immediately on my Chicago Manual of Style or my Strunk & White
Elements of Style, but I did manage to locate A Manual of Style, published by
the U.S. Government Printing Office, from which I will quote Section 8.11:
"In addition to illustrating possession, an apostrophe is used to indicate
contractions, the omission of figures or letters, and the coined plurals of
letters, figures, and symbols."
Thereafter it includes, among many other examples, these:
Btu's, OK's, MC'ing, ABC's, A's, 2 by 4's, P's and Q's.
In Section 8:13, it gives the example of yeses and noes; ifs, ands and buts;
ups and downs, but do's and don'ts.
To quote an oft-spoken line from Hee-Haw, I'm through playin' now.
Walt
--
"Anything more than 500 yards from
the car just isn't photogenic." --
Edward Weston
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: keith_w <keith_w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Moose wrote:
> > Walt Wayman wrote:
> >> Would you prefer OM-4Tis or OM-4Ti's?
>
> > I avoid the problem by writing "OM-4Ti bodies".
> >
> > Moose
>
> Hi Moose, and all...
>
> From a textbook on "Writing Rules":
>
> "An apostrophe and s are used to form the plural of a letter, a number, a
> sign, or _a word discussed as a word_."
>
> [underlining is mine...]
>
> "e.g. "You use too many and's in your writing.""
>
> In the case of making "OM-4Ti" plural, OM-4Ti is technically considered a
> word, so the plural form OM4Ti's is perfectly acceptable.
>
> So is Moose's way! ;-)
>
> keith whaley
>
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