Oh dear, this is not news to gladden the heart of a punctuation pedant. The bookshop chain founded by Tim Waterstone is dropping the apostrophe from its name.
Waterstone’s said it is phasing out the apostrophe in its logo because it is no longer ‘practical’ in the age of the internet and email addresses.
The company makes a fair point – apostrophes don’t sit well with World Wide Web addresses and electronic communications.
But, as John Richards, chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society, said: “It’s just plain wrong. It’s grammatically incorrect. If Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s can get it right, then why can’t Waterstone’s? You would really hope that a bookshop is the last place to be so slapdash with English.”
In response, James Daunt, who became managing director last year when the chain was sold to a Russian billionaire, said: “Waterstones without an apostrophe is, in a digital world of URLs and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling.”
Either way, Waterstone’s/Waterstones have managed a great piece of PR. Just by changing their name they’ve bagged headlines on, among others, Radio 4 and the in Daily Mail. Not bad going, when the story boils down to the removal of one apostrophe.
So, what do you think? Should it be Waterstone’s or Waterstones? Does it really matter in this modern age, where LOL now seems to have slipped into spoken English as well as texting?
We'd love to hear your views.