I've been reading self-published books for free on KindleUnlimited recently and some of them are great, with really compelling plots and strong characters in unusual settings. But some of the writers could use a bit more help with technical aspects of their writing. Given my background as a professor of English language, I figured that's something I could help with.

So this is an experiment. I'm going to put out a quiz and an explanation of a commonly mis-used feature of English and see whether anyone finds it useful. If no-one seems interested, I won't bother doing any more, but if there's a decent uptake for this, I'll put together some more materials and I'm happy to take requests in the comments.

I've started with apostrophes because no writer is going to be able to avoid them altogether and many readers and reviewers will notice and comment on their mis-use. They're one of those features of written English whose function is to enable those who understand them to look down their noses at everyone else: after all, we manage without them perfectly well when we're speaking. In all the self-published books I've read, misplaced and missing apostrophes have never made it difficult to understand what's going on, but for many readers and reviewers, the misuse of apostrophes is a red flag which is taken as an indication of insufficient care, skill or intelligence.

I should confess up front that I've that I've taken the liberty of simplifying one aspect of apostrophe use in the video and quiz, for the possessive forms of words and names ending with s. Some people and some house styles insist on 's: 

James's, Jesus's, Thomas's, bus's

Others prefer just to add an apostrophe at the end: 

James', Jesus', Thomas', bus'

Rather than confusing anyone with unnecessary choices, I've gone for the first of these options because a) it's easier than remembering an exception to the general rule b) it maps better on to the pronunciation and c) it's more widely used these days. However, if you prefer the second option, it's not my place to discourage you. Either is fine as long as you're consistent.

You're welcome to launch straight into the quiz if you think you're hard enough.


Otherwise, you could start with the explanations first by clicking on the video above. A Powerpoint to watch at your own speed and an A4 cribsheet are available from my website.

Please give feedback if you've found this useful or if there are other technical features of language that you'd like some help with.