This winter I've been studying editing, taking online courses in an effort to become a better writer and also to improve my skillset as a freelancer. The other day I came across a disturbing piece of news in my course materials: the apostrophe I've been using in the phrase "farmers' market" may not actually belong there.
At the risk of sounding like a language nerd, I love that apostrophe. It says that the market belongs to the farmers. The instructor's rationale was that in this particular phrase, "farmers" functions as an adjective rather than a noun, therefore it shouldn't take the possessive form.
I've used the possesive form throughout this blog, even in the header. When I was working on my cookbook Local Bounty, the editor suggested that we drop the apostrophe. I suspect she used the adjective argument, but it was a while ago and I don't fully remember. I indicated that I felt strongly about it and she let me have my way.
In addition to the thorny intricacies of grammar, my coursework has also dealt with the interpersonal complexities of marking up someone else's work. I realize now that this editor exercised discretion and flexibility in a way that probably ran counter to her sensibilities, because it was apparent that this particular apostrophe mattered to me.
That's the kind of editor I want to be. And in the meantime, I'm going to keep right on using that apostrophe, consistently and defensibly.
2 comments:
That's funny, I think it's still up in the air, when my copy editor researched it she said it must have an apostrophe because she also believed the name meant the market is like a co-op and the farmers wasn't an adjective but referred to a collection of people.
Actually, after I wrote this post I discovered that the Chicago Manual of Style says to include it, although the instructors in both of my classes (as well as the editor for Local Bounty) said to leave it out. Yes, it is definitely up in the air, so to speak. I think my point was just that it was interesting for me to discover that I felt such a strong attachment to a particular punctuation mark.
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