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Comment by Jennie Ann on July 21, 2009 at 11:08

Thanks for the response, Rosalie! :) Now I feel more confident that I selected the right punctuation.

I recently had to look up how to write ratios, and I am still not sure what to think about it.

A slash represents "per" or "to" in measures and ratios, e.g. 2 ft./min., price/earnings ratio. A colon is supposed to be used in proportions, e.g. 2:1, and as a ratio sign, e.g. 1:2::3:6.

When "fifty fifty chance" words are spoken, I still am inclined to write 50/50 and not 50:50.

What do y'all think?

Comment by Rosalie DeLeonardis on July 21, 2009 at 8:14

Jennie, I just looked up the rules for time in Morson's English Guide, and you are right. 10 a.m. is correct, same with ten o'clock. Thanks for bringing this question up because years ago when working with one firm, the owner had me change to 10:00 a.m., 10:00 o'clock, etc., but now that I've looked it up, I'm going back to my old ways.

Comment by Jennie Ann on July 21, 2009 at 2:30

Time question. I thought I read that when you have time such as 10 a.m. that you do not need the colon and two zeroes after it. However, 10:30 is done like this, and if they say "o'clock," then you write "ten" out like ten o'clock.

When the time falls on the hour, like 10 a.m., is "10 a.m." appropriate?

Could, would, or should it be "10:00 a.m."?

Comment by Jennie Ann on July 10, 2009 at 6:58

Thank you, Christine and Denise. I really appreciate your helpful responses.

Comment by Denise Riffle on July 10, 2009 at 6:24

If you hear the "es" at the end, it is correct to use the 's.

Per Gregg Section 638: To form the singular possessive of an abbreviation, add an apostrophe plus s. One of their examples is PBS's programming.

Comment by Christine Kirley on July 10, 2009 at 5:47

I would use 's

Comment by Jennie Ann on July 10, 2009 at 3:58

I'm not sure where to post this.

How would I punctuate an acronym that ends in "S" that is possessive?

Example A: We have asked these panelists to provide their perspectives on the FSIS's efforts to improve its inspections.

Example B: We have asked these panelists to provide their perspectives on the FSIS' efforts to improve its inspections.

The speaker definitely says [F-S-I-S-es efforts].

Comment by Brenda Rogers on June 17, 2009 at 17:40

The 679 is what threw me off. 1,679,000? 1,000,679? I just feel the 5 million 679 implies, strongly, that it's 5,679,000. I rarely use words instead of numerals, so that says something.

If I knew just what they mean, though, from documents or other discussion, I'd have no hesitation with the numerals.

Comment by Marla Sharp on June 17, 2009 at 17:29

That's why I'm voting for numerals over words - because of the 679 - for consistency.
1 million 5. 5 million 679.

Comment by Marla Sharp on June 17, 2009 at 17:13

You could do:
* 1 million 5 or one million five
* 5 million 679 (but NOT five million 679)
You can't do 5,679,000 because it could be 5,000,679. Same with 1,500,000 or 1,000,500 or 1,000,005.

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