[Grammar/poll] Quick check ...

[dancefloorlandmine]

Should the plural of an acronym have an apostrophe?

[Poll #1217630]

I know what the Times and Oxford style guides say, but I was wondering about the opinions of my readership on the wonderful wibbly wobbly world wide web.

Comments

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I follow style guides that use minimal dottage, but as the E is short for Examination I'd see the apostrophe as old-fashioned rather than wrong.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

But the plural of Examination is Examinations, not Examination's?

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Yes, but "xamination" is being elided; apostrophes can be used to mark alisions. however, in the case of GCSE, if you were to use apostrophes to mark the elisions, it would be G'C'S'E', which would be silly.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

D'oh, I o'erlook'd the elision aspect. Although yes, G'C'S'E' would be daft!

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the apostrophe would be indicating missing letters (as in "don't") rather than possession. Similar to putting full stops after Mr or Dr to show they're abbreviations - old-fashioned and I don't do it any more (against civil service style).

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

My mistake - I forgot about the use of an apostrophe to mark an elision. I suppose an alternative view would be that GCSE is actually a string of abbreviations, so could be G.C.S.E. - I suppose that the increasing use of acronyms has resulted in the steady dropping of the intervening stops.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the apostrophe would be indicating missing letters (as in "don't") rather than possession. Similar to putting full stops after Mr or Dr to show they're abbreviations - old-fashioned and I don't do it any more (against civil service style).

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

The E is short for Education - General Certificate of Secondary Education.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

D'oh! I knew that!

Blame the codeined-up brain...