The Grammarnator is unable to find his recent notes on possessive apostrophe use, but since this is the topic that most seems to need revisiting, he is sure that other examples will soon present themselves to his continually searching eye. In the meantime, here’s something from the Monitor of July 23.
Officials in Haverhill have not yet released the name of police officers involved in a shooting more than two weeks ago. A Haverhill selectman was quoted by the Monitor’s reporter. The first paragraph below is the reporter’s lead-in and the second is largely made up of the quote.
He called the decision to release an officer’s name who was involved in a shooting a double-edge sword.
“I think it does protect the officers involved because there are people out there who will rush to judgment,” Fortier said. But “it gives the appearance to the public that we are trying to hide something, when in fact that isn’t the case at all.”
The error is in the reporter’s introduction. Can you spot it?
Perhaps my editor will decide to wait a week in order to see how many thousands of responses I receive. If so, this column has ended. But if he has decided to merely provide a pause for you all to think about this, you can read on to find the answer (It’s up to you, Mr. Testa). [Editor’s note: In the interest of filling this column space completely, we’ve decided to run the answer now. Consider yourself spoiler alerted.]
The problem involves a pronoun and antecedent. The pronoun is “it,” the third word in the quotation. To what does this “it” refer? As written, “it” is “the decision to release an officer’s name.” But releasing the name will neither protect the officers nor suggest that something is being kept hidden. Quite the opposite. Releasing the name may bring criticism of the officer and will show that the town wishes to inform the public rather than keep information from them. How should this error be corrected? (Another pause here for reflection by my dedicated readers.)
Simple. Change “release” in the introductory paragraph to “withhold.” Say it yourself and you will see how much more sense it makes.
