Apostrophes
Key points
Use apostrophes to show possession and for contractions.
Avoid using contractions that could be mistaken for possessives. For example: ‘Your child isn’t well’ not ‘Your child’s not well’.
When typing apostrophes directly into the CMS, copy and paste curly apostrophes.
Proper nouns in the possessive case
Use ’s for the possessive case in names and surnames ending in s:
James's ball Charles’s paper
Names of organisations and products
Always check the formal name of the organisation and include the apostrophe if it forms part of the name.
Expressions of time
Use an apostrophe to help mark singular expressions of time:
a day’s journey the year’s cycle
With a plural expression of time, do not use an apostrophe:
a few months notice a few weeks notice
Curly versus straight apostrophes
If you're typing text directly into the html editor in the CMS and type an apostrophe, you’ll get a straight apostrophe – '. But our site requires curly apostrophes – ’.
To insert curly apostrophes, you can copy and paste them from Word.