Avoiding Catastrophes

Dear Saidie,
I've noticed that apostrophes are showing up in all the wrong places. So when is (when's) it right or not to tack on apostrophes?
Signed,
Avoiding Catastrophes

Dear Avoiding,
I've noticed that writers are getting loose with their apostrophes and it's (it is) easy to become confused when that little character is out of place. So, here's (here is) a New Year's (possessive apostrophe) resolution to remember to put our apostrophes (not possessive) in the right spot - or not.

Commonly, apostrophes indicate something is missing or make a word possessive:
1. Use an apostrophe to replace something that's (that is) missing. It's (it is) time to turn your calendars to 2009. Other common contractions are can't (can not) and that's (that is).
2. Form a possessive of a noun: New Year's resolution. To decide if you need an apostrophe, turn your phrase around to say "Resolution of the New Year." Think of possessive as "belonging to," such as Tulsa's new arena. The arena belongs to Tulsa.

An apostrophe footnote: Words that end with an s can be confusing when forming possessives. Sally Jones' pencil. Associated Press style recommends not adding an extra s after the apostrophe (Jones's) but some other style guides say it's (it is) OK to add the extra s. It depends on how you pronounce the word - no extra syllable, add only an apostrophe. It is (it's) a style issue.

Finally, we make most nouns plural by adding a simple s. Then to make the plural noun possessive add the apostrophe. So it's (it is) a formula: girl + s + ' = girls' = something belonging to more than one girl. Plural words that don't (do not) end in s need an apostrophe at the end for possession: Their children's classrooms.

I hope that helps lasso those tricky runaway apostrophes.
Saidie