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AMA Manual of Style (10th ed.) : A Guide for Authors and Editors

AMA Manual of Style Committee

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Print Publication Date:
Mar 2007
Print ISBN-13:
9780195176339
Published to AMA Manual of Style:
Apr 2009
DOI:
10.1093/jama/9780195176339.001.0001
© American Medical Association
Contents

To Show Possession

Chapter:
Punctuation
Author(s):

Cheryl Iverson

8.7.1 To Show Possession

Use the apostrophe to show the possessive case of proper nouns in accordance with the following examples (see also 16.2, Eponyms, Nonpossessive Form):

Jones' bones (1 person named Jones)

the Joneses' bones (2 or more people named Jones)

If a singular or plural word does not end in s, add 's to form the possessive.

a child’s wants

men’s concerns

women’s health

everyone’s answer
If a proper noun or name ends in a silent s, z, or x, form the possessive by adding 's.

Theroux’s The Mosquito Coast

Jacqueline du Pres’s recordings