I was writing an email recently and wanted to indicate the possessive of Charles. I vaguely remember being taught that it should be Charles’ with no extra “s” but since then I had read styling guides that said technically it should be Charles’s, though really either is acceptable. To some people, Charles’s may seem wrong, but it is not. For the sake of not confusing people, I tend to use Charles’ since I know that was commonly taught in schools across the nation. However, I much prefer using Charles’s; if it weren’t for the fact that some people were never taught that was correct, I’d use it more often. After all, who wants to go into a grammar/punctuation lesson in the middle of an email exchange?
I actually did do that in this case, but only because the thread included very bright people who probably knew exactly what I was talking about and maybe even experienced the same hesitation using Charles’s vs. Charles’. I was happy to have that feeling validated when one of the girls replied confirming my statement and offering a source that explains the use of apostrophes: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe (This site is also a great source for other interesting, entertaining, and information infographic cartoons.
This incident gave me confidence to go forth using Charles’s from now on. Who cares if other people think I’m wrong and don’t know the rules of English? Those who really know what they’re talking about will know the truth. ;-P