Writing Tip 77: Writing about Decades (Apostrophes?)
The apostrophe. It’s the super size me of punctuation marks. Who would want just a plain word when you could add an apostrophe with that, right? Let’s talk about our over-punctuating, America. We’re getting grammatically obese, and it doesn’t make any sense.
Sure, we’ve talked about unnecessary punctuation with “its, ” “you’re,” plural names, and probably more I can’t think of. Today, let’s focus on referencing decades.
The 1980s is the span of years from 1980 – 1989. It you want to abbreviate it, call it the ’80s. There is no possessive apostrophe “s.” The 1980’s is just weird and nonsensical. The 80’s is just confused. Please stop writing that.
I am a child of the 1980s. The 1990s were my coming-of-age years. Maybe the super-size-me culture started before my time, but it’s the 2010s now. Let’s decline the extra punctuation. Tasty as it may be, it’s just not good for you.