Is It Harris’ or Harris’s? Add a Walz, and It’s Even Trickier.

The Associated Press Stylebook, widely considered to be the gold standard among news organizations, is clear on its rule for the possessive of singular proper names ending in S — only an apostrophe is needed (Harris’), though there are always exceptions. The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal all do the opposite, opting... See more

The questions of apostrophe placement regarding Harris and Walz are far from the most debated use of the punctuation mark, Mr. McCalden said. (That would be using orange’s instead of oranges.) But the discourse comes at a pivotal time for apostrophes: Thursday, Aug. 15, is International Apostrophe Day.

“Anyone who tells you there are universal rules to how to add an apostrophe ending in S is either wrong or lying,” Jeffrey Barg, a grammar columnist, said. “You can’t be wrong as long as you’re consistent.”