FROM ELISE
I'm having a hard time swallowing something my editor told me about possessive s's. I've always understood that you could show possession with just the apostrophe after the final s, or that you could also show it with the s's. I.e., Diane Rogers' pen or Diane Rogers's pen. I prefer to write using just the apostrophe. However, I was told that according to (please forgive me, I don't remember the full name of the manual, but it was something with Chicago in it) that manual, it HAS to be done s's.
RESPONSE
The Chicago Manual of Style. Yep, always "s's" for singular possessive, and "s'" for plural possessive. So:
Singular Possessive
James's trunk is lost.
Dennis's suit looks sharp.
Plural Possessive
The boys' trunk is lost.
My parents' dog just died.
I know that nowadays people often remove the second "s" in the possessive of a name ending in "s" mostly because it's a little awkward to say, but sorry, the possessive rule is "apostrophe s" regardless of whether the name ends in "s" or not. Of course, I've heard the rule that you remove the possessive "s" in ancient names like Euripedes, but I can see no justification for it.
As an interesting aside, here's something that's not really a rule, but just an observation of reality: Never contract "is" or "has" with a word ending in an "s" or "z" sound. Try to say it:
James's coming home tomorrow.
James's been sick.
Denise's coming home tomorrow.
Denise's been sick.
You literally cannot speak the contraction. Your tongue automatically inserts the "is" and "has".
That's my two cents.