From: ddrewc@verizonSPAMBEGONE.net   
      
   On 2007-11-10 1:40 a.m., Joseph Nebus verbated:   
   > So: should there be an apostrophe   
   > in the phrase 'Writers Strike' as I use it, and if so, where?  If not,   
   > why not?  And in the event, is it too late to do anything about it anyway?   
      
   I'm not a grammarian by trade or by training, but it seems to me that   
   either of two cases would apply, depending on how one wants the phrase to   
   be interpreted:   
      
   1) If "strike" is to be interpreted as a noun, then an apostrophe should   
   come after the "s" in "writers" -- as in "writers' strike" -- to express   
   that the two words form a compound noun expressing the possessive of a   
   plural owner (i.e., writers).   
      
   2) On the other hand, if you read "strike" as a verb, then the phrase   
   becomes a mini-sentence with subject "writers" and predicate "strike," and   
   no apostrophe is needed.   
      
   Personally, I think the phrase in the noun sense (case #1) works better as   
   a discussion topic, but I don't see sufficient reason to change it now,   
   because the phrase without the apostrophe (case #2) is also grammatically   
   correct, albeit with a slightly different meaning, and anyway there's no   
   confusion about what is being discussed.   
      
   Incorrect places to put an apostrophe in the phrase would include:   
      
   * "writer's strike" (unless the entire union goes back to work except for   
   one holdout);   
      
   * "'writers strike" (unless you're referring to, say, typewriters or   
   ghostwriters or some other word ending in "writers");   
      
   * "writers s'trike" (unless "s'trike" is the phoneticization of a word from   
   some foreign language);   
      
   * "writers strike'" (although some people's names have an apostrophe after   
   a vowel over which an accent mark should have been placed, as in "Donte'").   
      
   By the way, it's good that you didn't include the word "union" in the   
   phrase, because then it would have been more complicated. I've seen both   
   "writers union" and "writers' union" used in news articles. Both terms are   
   grammatically justifiable for reasons I won't get into, and there seems to   
   be no consensus on a standard.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)