Boys, Boys', Girls, Girls'

I'm putting together the finishing touches on our swim coverage and in writing boys and girls in stories and sub heads, i'm getting paranoid that I'm screwing up.

I'm writing "Boys/Girls State Championship Swim Meet"

Is that right? Or do I need an apostrophe?

 

Depends on your paper's style. I've seen it done both ways.

 

i say no.

 

Our style is no apostrophe, but as chickie said, depends on your paper's style.

 

yeah, i meant my paper's style. i've seen some do it, but i don't like it.

 

no apostrophe at this shop.

 

If it's men's basketball, then why not boys' basketball? That said, I'm pretty sure I'll be in the minority on this one.

 

reading it, the meet belongs to the boys, but it is also a meet of boys.

For me, it's no apostrophe.

Stupid punctuation.

 

I say no. doesn't look right, and that's reason enough for me.

men's, women's, boys, girls. doesn't need to make sense. this is the english language. we can do whatever we want with it.

 

No apostrophe. It's not a possessive use, just as an adjective.

And yes, men's and women's are possessives. Only thing I can say is that it sounds weird to say "men basketball" ...

Same as "The third-year Bears receiver was held to two catches." People want to put an apostrophe in there, but there's no need to.

 

No apostrophe.

If you can't justify it grammatically, justify it in that it saves ink.

 

You are exactly right. If it is men's, it has to be boys'... or you are simply being illogical and inconsistent... which I do understand many on this board make a cottage industry out of.

It's the way we do it.

At least until some muckety-muck justifies his job by changing the style in the next five minutes.