Punctuation

Mississippi

Suggest improvements for the highlighted problem area: In the debate about the source of the Mississippi, we heard three student's opinions: Nathan: It isnt any mystery that the source of the Mississippi is the northeast corner of Minnesota. In 1832, Henry Schoolcraft proved that the river began with springs under Lake Itasca. Hillary: Nathan, your wrong. Actually, the Missouri River is longer than the upper Mississippi and has a larger area from which it collects water. Therefore, the true source of the Mississippi is the Rocky Mountain region of western Montana. Cecil: Hillary and Nathan's ideas fail to recognize the big picture. The waters of the Mississippi come from rain clouds that float over 22 states and 2 provinces in North America. Answer: - Apostrophe for Possession - The apostrophe is used to indicate possession, a contraction, or a plural. In the first sentence of the opening paragraph we have a need for an apostrophe to show possession: In the debate about the source of the Mississippi, we heard three student's opinions: Because the opinions belong to the students, we need to show the possessive case for the plural noun, students: In the debate about the source of the Mississippi, we heard three students' opinions: The rules for using the possessive apostrophe are shown below for different types of nouns:   noun plural ends in -s noun plural doesn't end in -s compound word plural ends in -s singular: husband's idea woman's problem mother-in-law's visit plural: husbands' idea women's problem mother-in-laws' visit A notable exception to these rules is for the personal pronouns, which refer to specific persons or things: personal pronoun:    I you he she it we they possessive form:   mine yours his hers its ours theirs

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