It was brought to my attention recently that there was an interesting comment on my post, Mainstreaming, Fitting In, posted in October. I tried to leave a response to that comment but was unsuccessful, so here it is in an extra post.
Bill pointed out that it is difficult to read contracted text that does not include the apostrophe, such as in dont or doesnt. While I appreciate his taking the time to comment, I must correct his perception that I do not take the time to use it or do not know how to use it. The fact is that I always use an apostrophe when writing contracted words, but when the story is posted, somehow all the apostrophes are stripped out. I have no control over that. The first time I read what I had posted, I was horrified. I wondered if I had made that embarrassing typo, but no. It was pervasive, and thats when I discovered that in this day of modern typing, where you use just a W for the word with and words BTW for by the way, and SLAP for sounds like a plan, I guess that the apostrophe is obsolete too. Sorry Bill. But I feel your frustration.
I certainly noticed the missing apostrophes – didn’t and doesn’t bother me.
I noticed them too. It took me awhile to notice because I was interested in the message.