As I was finalizing my movie review this morning, I couldn't help but laugh as I struggled over how to make the name of Robert Downey Jr. possessive (notice I didn't even want to put what I thought it might be, so I used the word "of" instead). Anyhow, after reading Truss' chapters on punctuation (something I thought I didn't have a problem with), I now pore over every detail in the fear that my previous beliefs on punctuation were wrong. So, when I proceeded to use that certain actor's name in my paper, I came to struggle with how to make "Jr." possessive. After all, my heavy reliance on the spelling and grammar check told me that "Jr.'s" is incorrect (it actually gave me the substitutions "Mr.'s" and "Jars", so now I am completely thrown for a loop). So, in the end I went with what I thought and put "Jr.'s". Whether it is right or wrong, I took a leap of faith and disregarded the evil red squiggly line that sat under the word like a worm undera rock. I just pray that Truss' spirit will not haunt me from across the Atlantic Ocean.
What does everyone else think?
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3 comments:
that is a tough one to tackle, Eric. You would think that your original thought would be correct, because Jr's. sounds wrong. But if you did indeed look it up and it said that is the correct way to do it, then apparently it is. I would have put the same Jr. as you though, so you are certainly not the only one who would think that is correct.
Down with little red squiggly lines. Even more so with the little green ones - which pop up in all of my writing because apparently I think in sentense fragments. That is a tough use of the poor apostrophe though. I immediately opened Word to see if I could have any better luck, and will launch my google search of grammar just after this post. However, I did find that word is perfectly accepting of Robert Downey Junior's (as an illustration of the possessive). Perhaps we just can't make abbreviations possessive. But we would certainly say "Robert Downey Junior's recent DUI," for example. Not "Robert Downey Junior recent DUI" or "Robert Downey's recent DUI" because that would implicate his father.
Well Prof, what is it? Englighten your confused students!
The best way to get around this dilemma is to not use a period after Jr. It is common practice to drop the period after abbreviated titles. Note that Truss doesn't use periods after Dr, St or Mr in her book. If an editor wanted to be a stickler about it, I think the "correct" usage in your situation would be Jr.'s.
I also hate the red and green squiggly lines, so my spelling and grammar check is always turned off. If I want to check what I write, I just do it when I'm finished. Having the squiggly lines is just like some wanker (in the Trussian sense) nagging you.
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