Poets? Poet’s? Poets’?

Posted by on Feb 8, 2024 in Editing, Grammar, Writing Process, Writing Tips | 0 comments

So I gather there are some questions about Taylor Swift, poets, and apostrophes.

Should it be The Tortured Poet’s Department? That would be correct if there is only one tortured poet in residence. Perhaps it’s a very small college.

Should it be The Tortured Poets’ Department? That would be correct if there is more than one tortured poet present. A seminar, maybe.

Should it be The Tortured Poets Department, as on the album cover? This is quite correct also, just as long as there is, again, more than one tortured poet. In this case, instead of a department belonging to tortured poets, it’s a department of or pertaining to tortured poets–kind of like the housewares department is not a department that belongs to housewares, but a department where housewares are relevant.

(There’s an argument for The Tortured-Poets Department, but honestly, it just looks clunky and awkward.)

Should it be The Department of Tortured Poets so that we don’t have to have this conversation anymore? I vote for this. When in a total grammatical quandary, rephrase!

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