Seeking Grammar Police Ruling - Typo's / that possessive 's

[Carol]

"Me" (CJ) wrote:
> 
> Well, I can't speak to the British situation, but in the U.S. there
is no consensus. Journalists generally just add the apostrophe; other 
> authorities insist on 's. In this situation "house rules" apply --
i.e., check with your publisher. <snip>

Carol responds:
I edit for a living, mostly American manuscripts, so I have to be
familiar with the style manuals.

A few independent U.S. book publishers (as well as some publishers of
magazines and newspapers) may allow a simple apostrophe after a
singular noun ending in "s," but most follow the Chicago Manual of
Style, which says:

"The general rule for possessives of nouns covers most proper nouns,
including most names ending in sibilants <snip sections listing
exceptions>. " Examples listed include: Kansas's, Burns's poems, the
Rosses' and the Williamsons' lands, Dickens's novels.

Names ending in silent s, z, or x form the possessive the same way
("Descartes's works").

Exceptions include Jesus', Moses', and a few names (mostly ancient
Greek) ending in -es (pronounced eez).

(CMS, fourteenth ed., sections 6.24-6.27) 

The style manual of the Modern Language Association, used for
scholarly works in the humanities, has the same rule.

MLA states clearly and simply: "To form the possessive of *any*
singular proper noun, add an apostrophe and an 's' <snip examples>. To
form the possessive of any plural proper noun, add only an apostrophe"
(second ed. 3.4.7-3.4.8, emphasis mine).

Oddly, the APA (American Psychological Association) style manual
doesn't deal with either apostrophes or possessives.  Maybe the
publishers of such works expect authors to consult a standard
reference such as Strunk and White's famous "Elements of Style," the
very first line of which (not counting the introduction) is "Form the
possessive singular of nouns by adding 's." Examples include
"Charles's" and "Burns's."

You can't go wrong following CMS--or Strunk and White--if you're an
American writer other than a journalist following AP (Associated
Press) style.

Carol, who also consulted several publishers' style sheets available
online, including the one I'm linking to below, and found the exact
same rules.

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/User/My%20Documents/StyleGuideV2.pdf