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X's and O's or Xs and Os?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by WaylonJennings, Jun 11, 2008.

  1. Apostrophes necessary?
     
  2. Sconnie

    Sconnie Member

    No, same thing with the 1970s or 1980s...
     
  3. zebracoy

    zebracoy Guest

    Absolutely not.
     
  4. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Xs and Os, not X's and O's.

    And the teams are the Os and the As, not the O's and the A's.
     
  5. Bump_Wills

    Bump_Wills Member

    From the plurals entry in the AP stylebook:

    SINGLE LETTERS: Use ’s: Mind your p’s and q’s. He learned the three R’s and brought home a report card with four A’s and two B’s. The Oakland A’s won the pennant.
     
  6. beardpuller

    beardpuller Active Member

    Thank God, my paper has a stylebook that doesn't follow AP style.
    O's is a contraction, as is A's. So there's an apostrophe. There is no reason to stick an apostrophe after X or O.
     
  7. JJHHI

    JJHHI Member

    How would say a person received only grades of "A" on his or her report card, then? Because in my estimation, "As" doesn't work, so you have to use an apostrophe and say "A's."
     
  8. MacDaddy

    MacDaddy Active Member

    Which is exactly why you use apostrophes with single letters.
     
  9. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    The "reason" people use "X's" is that it simply looks more correct and will not stop the reader in his tracks.

    Whenever you just stick an "s" at the end of one letter it does not "look" plural. It just looks like another word. "p's" and "q's" becomes ps and qs. Silly. Don't do it.

    Let's say that "U" was an abbreviation for something. Sticking an "s" at the end creates "Us". Is that what you want? Better to be safe and go with "U's".
     
  10. JJHHI

    JJHHI Member

    Which was precisely my point. :D
     
  11. MacDaddy

    MacDaddy Active Member

    Which is exactly why I agree with you. :D
     
  12. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    Just a little curious: You don't own a stylebook?
     
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