Newsletter Copyedit: Apostrophes, Commas, and a Semicolon
A school newsletter editor has four sentences to check before the issue goes out:
- "the principals announcement, which was posted on monday, said that students lockers would be cleaned over spring break."
- "Parents who attended the meeting, said the schedule was confusing."
- "Its important that the PTA review it's budget before the vote."
- "Bring your signed permission slip, you cannot attend the trip without it."
The editor has 20 minutes, must not change any facts, and wants a short rule for each correction so that next month's issue does not repeat the errors.
1. Correct all four sentences and name the punctuation or mechanics rule behind each correction.
Read the worked answer
1. "The principal's announcement, which was posted on Monday, said that students' lockers would be cleaned over spring break."
principals→principal's: one principal possesses the announcement, so a singular possessive.monday→Monday: days of the week are capitalized.students lockers→students' lockers: many students possess their own lockers; the plural possessive puts the apostrophe after thes.- Capital
Thebegins the sentence.
2. "Parents who attended the meeting said the schedule was confusing."
- Delete the comma. A subject must not be separated from its verb, and the relative clause
who attended the meetingis restrictive - it identifies which parents - so it takes no comma either.
3. "It's important that the PTA review its budget before the vote."
Its→It's(it is).it's→its(possessive, no apostrophe). The trap is that possessives normally take apostrophes; pronouns do not.
4. "Bring your signed permission slip; you cannot attend the trip without it."
- Comma splice: two independent clauses joined by a comma alone. A semicolon (or a period) is required.
2. Write a two-line rule set the editor can reuse for "its/it's" and for possessives like "students' lockers," without memorizing individual cases.
Read the worked answer
Line 1 - pronouns never take an apostrophe for possession. Its, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs are already possessive. Therefore an apostrophe in it's can only mean a contraction of it is or it has. Test: substitute it is; if the sentence still works, write it's; if not, write its.
- "It's raining" = "It is raining" ✓
- "The PTA reviewed it's budget" = "…it is budget" ✗ →
its
Line 2 - for nouns, place the apostrophe after whatever owns the thing. Singular owner: apostrophe + s (principal's). Plural owner ending in s: apostrophe only (students'). Irregular plural: apostrophe + s (children's).
Combined check for the editor: ask "who owns it, and how many are there?" Then "can I substitute it is?" Two questions cover the most common newsletter errors.
3. Sentence 4 could be fixed with a period instead of a semicolon. Which should the editor choose, and on what basis?
Read the worked answer
Both are correct; the choice is about how tightly the two clauses should be bound.
Semicolon signals that the second clause explains or completes the first: Bring your signed permission slip; you cannot attend the trip without it. The reader takes in the instruction and its consequence as one unit.
Period gives the consequence its own weight: Bring your signed permission slip. You cannot attend the trip without it. For a newsletter where readers skim, two short sentences are easier to absorb.
Given the audience - parents skimming a school notice - the period is the better default. The semicolon is not wrong, but it is a slightly literary mark for a routine notice, and strong writers reserve it for clauses they genuinely want read together.
What is not available: leaving the comma. The comma splice is the error; everything else is a style judgement.