I much prefer no apostrophes at all to incorrectly placed apostrophes. Like a few others, I can usually spot an incorrectly placed one at 10 paces (though I'm not a teacher.)
Full stops and short sentences are good 
With gaps in between the sentences sometimes.
Not my strongest suit, often. Sorry everyone - can't promise to improve much...
Then there is the apostrophe used to replace a missed out letter, for example in it is, shortened to it's. That's fine - I can do that one. But what about the dog scratched its leg where I think an apostrophe is wrong - but it could be me whose wrong there, or is it who's wrong 
No-one answered the second question! I think it probably is "who's", as in an abbreviated "who is", rather than "whose", meaning belonging to the person we were talking about.
I thought I was pedantic until my children started pulling me up for lapses. But the rules of grammar allow some flexibility to avoid the correct use of English being ugly.
Worse than incorrect grammar though is where someone cannot explain clearly what they mean. I'd far rather it was wrong but clear.
SF, your later explanation of colons and semicolons was brilliant, thank you very much for that
But I can't resist a tease about the above...
I think you meant
Worse than incorrect grammar though is where someone cannot explain clearly what they mean. I'd far rather their grammer was wrong but their meaning clear.
rather than
Worse than incorrect grammar though is where someone cannot explain clearly what they mean. I'd far rather what they wrote was wrong but clear.
:ducks flying squashed tomatoes:
I only use them when I know it is correct, which is most tho not all of the time.
Here is the chapter and verse on when to use the apostrophe; this guide also covers the 'apostrophe after the end of the word' scenario.
I would say unless people are confident they are using them correctly, leave them off as it is quite distracting to read posts where they are incorrectly used, and no-one is likely to take correction without getting offended.
However the world is unlikely to end.
A ban would be an insult to those who do know how and when to use them, a sort of compulsory dumbing down.
llm, did you mean to include a link in the above?
they must all hate my posts 
Not the content, robert - never. But Oh! they are
so hard to read and decipher! Sometimes I just give up and accept that I could be missing out on one of your gems. But I'd much much much rather you kept on posting just as you do than that you didn't post for fear of grammatical critique or (though this doesn't sound like you!
) for fear of offending. (And yes I know that last sentence is difficult to read and understand. It's supposed to be irony, I think?)
Even in my lifetime (and I'm not really all that old ) grammar and spelling have changed a small but noticeable amount. The same has happened in French, in spite of their serious attempts to keep their language 'pure'. I love language and regional variations in words and pronunciation - I can totally miss out on what someone has said because I have been listening to how they speak not what they are saying I also have a parrot-like compulsion to immitate accents - which has got me into big trouble in the past
Me too! Me too! (Both of the above.)
(And yes, that was also a very wee parrot joke.)
(Here's another :
Q: What goes, "Pieces of seven, pieces of seven." ?
A: A parroty error
)
(Dan will get it
)
And finally, please can I now have the prizes for the longest post and for the post which includes the most quotes?
