Well, I'm coming late to this thread, and I started to read through it before going to the links and was caught up short by Wendy's comment
Ah, Vicki, but
Lois' is incorrect!
She had the silly face, so I was sure she was kidding, so I went to the link that LauraBF posted. It's very humorous indeed, but obviously I need to know about this rule. The author says:
And when you use an apostrophe to denote a possessive with a name or place that ends in "S," you need to add another "S," unless it's a plural ("the Joneses' house"). "The princess's car." "Cletus's truck."
Seriously, FoLCs, when did this change? I was taught that it was either/or...i.e. Lois's
or Lois'. So when I'm GEing I usually give the author a choice, and just make sure they use the same thing consistently throughout. To quote from our own grammar guide on the archive:
In general, when you pronounce the possessive s, then it is included in the written form. Thus, the possessive of Lois is Lois's, sometimes written Lois'.
EXAMPLE: Clark poured Lois's stale coffee into the sink.
or
EXAMPLE: Clark poured Lois' stale coffee into the sink.
And two online grammar guides that I just checked both said that either is acceptable, although one did say that Lois's is preferable.
So when this amusing writer is saying this is the only way it is, she's just talking through her hat here, right?
Kathy
