Tangled Passages

Beyond the bare facts, our best stories offer context, background, analysis and reaction. Unfortunately, sometimes we seem to try to put them all into one sentence.

The result can be long, convoluted, hard to read, even ungrammatical. As my colleague Patrick LaForge noted in a previous After Deadline essay on this topic, there's no firm rule for how long is too long for a sentence in a news story. But when the word count approaches 50, we are asking a lot from readers crammed on the subway or glancing at their phones in the checkout line. This ain't Proust, folks.

A long introductory clause, a pileup of punctuation, or a back-and-forth of competing thoughts may signal that a sentence is too tangled. Sometimes a simple period works wonders, breaking a sentence in two and giving the reader a chance to pause. Consider whether a long throat-clearing prelude is truly necessary. Remove some secondary information and move it lower. Pare ‘em down. Break ‘em up. Straighten ‘em out.

Here are a few recent passages that might have benefited from another look.

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WASHINGTON - Three months after hackers working for a cyberunit of China's People's Liberation Army went silent amid evidence that they had stolen data from scores of American companies and government agencies, they appear to have resumed their attacks using different techniques, according to computer industry security experts and American officials.

Be careful of loading too much background on the reader before getting to the main point. This 50-word lead sentence used more words for the backward-facing introductory clause than it did for the new stuff.

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The board of Yahoo, the faded Web pioneer, agreed on Sunday to buy the popular blogging service Tumblr for about $1.1 billion in cash, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, a signal of how the company plans to reposition itself as the technology industry makes a headlong rush into social media.

In 53 words, we looked back, we looked ahead, we surveyed the landscape and reported the news - an awful lot for a reader to absorb before the first period.

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As the Brooklyn district attorney's office pledged a complete review of about 50 murder cases after questions arose regarding the conduct of the detective assigned to them, renewed scrutiny has also focused on the role prosecutors play in what turn out to be wrongful convictions, and whether they should be held responsible when justice goes awry.

In this lead, too, we took a long look back - with two subordinate clauses - before getting to the new thought.

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The virus, which has struck farmed salmon populations in Chile, among other places, is not harmful to humans who eat the fish, but could potentially pose grave threats in a part of the world where salmon plays a huge role in local economies and ecosystems. If the virus, which is in the influenza family, mutates into a virulent Pacific strain in the crowded fish farms in British Columbia, where wild and farmed salmon are sometimes in proximity, fish populations on both sides of the farm/wild divide, Ms. Morton believes, could be devastated.

These two sentences included 92 words and, perhaps more tellingly, nine commas. If you need four or five commas per sentence to keep the clauses straight, consider simplifying.

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The new details of what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told authorities emerged as the F.B.I. moved forward on Thursday with trying to determine how the brothers were radicalized and the role that Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell, may have played in the plot or in helping the brothers evade the authorities after the attacks.

The whole first clause - technically the main clause - of this 52-word sentence was just a glance back at the preceding paragraphs. It's like one long “meanwhile.” Why not just start with “The F.B.I. moved forward …”?

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Pfizer has taken the unusual step of selling its erectile dysfunction drug, Viagra, to consumers on its Web site, in an effort to establish a presence in the huge online market for the popular blue pill, considered to be one of the most counterfeited drugs in the world.

Viagra is one of Pfizer's marquee drugs - the company said it brought in more than $2 billion in sales in 2012 - but some drug experts estimate Pfizer could be losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year to a prolific black market of online pharmacies that cater to men too embarrassed to buy the drug through traditional means. As of Monday, in an arrangement with CVS/pharmacy, patients in the United States with a valid prescription for Viagra are able to fill their order through the new Web site, where the sentence “Buy real Viagra” is featured prominently.

The lead sentence included four different references to Viagra, a clue that it was overstuffed. And the two-sentence second paragraph included, by my quick count, 97 words, 11 verbs and 15 prepositional phrases.

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Yet about 80 percent of abuse victims who receive trauma-focused weekly therapy show significant improvement after three to four months, studies find - the authorities in Cleveland are arranging for the women to receive trauma therapy, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Some survivors of lengthy captivities can have continuing problems, especially if they were already experiencing emotional difficulties before their abduction, and so, are more vulnerable. Others - like Elizabeth Smart, who was abducted from her bedroom in 2002 at the age of 14, and Jaycee Lee Dugard, who spent 18 years as a prisoner after being kidnapped in 1991 and had two children by her abductor - have apparently done well, going on to write books about their experiences and work on behalf of other abuse victims.

A proliferation of commas and dashes is often a bad sign. In the first sentence here, the dash is not enough to link the two clauses into a single sentence. In the next sentence, the commas around “and so” make the passage choppy and jarring. And in the third, too much information is wedged midsentence between the dashes, causing a reader to lose track of the main clause.

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The accounts from Mr. Hicks and two other officials, Mark I. Thompson, the former deputy coordinator for operations in the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau, and Eric Nordstrom, an official in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security who had testified previously, added some detail to accounts of the night of Sept. 11 in Benghazi. Armed Islamic militants penetrated the diplomatic compound, starting the fire that killed Mr. Stevens and an aide, and later killed two security officers in a mortar attack; in Tripoli, where frantic diplomats fearing a similar invasion used an ax to destroy classified hard drives; and in Washington, where officials struggled to keep up with events.

I suspect this paragraph started out as one endless sentence. But in breaking it up with a period after Benghazi, we rendered the second half ungrammatical and incomprehensible.

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In interviews with the Indian news media in recent days, Mr. Sharif stressed his desire to normalize relations with New Delhi - a subject that the army, which has fought three major wars with India - views as its central concern.

This sentence is not particularly long, but a problem with dashes makes it almost impossible to read. Use a comma in place of the second dash, or rephrase the sentence.

 
In a Word

This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

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But it is not clear exactly how much such groups can spend on elections, thanks to decades worth of vague and sometimes contradictory laws, regulations and court decisions.

Make it either “decades' worth of … laws” or “decades of … laws.”

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Mr. Nahmad helped not only to bankroll the operation, according to prosecutors, but was also personally involved in taking sports bets.

This construction needs to be parallel. Make it “not only helped to bankroll …”

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“The home crowd was electrifying,” said left wing Matt Martin, one of 15 Islanders making his playoff debut.

Another variation on the “one of” trap. To avoid using the singular pronoun “his” with the antecedent “15 Islanders,” we might make it “making their playoff debuts” or “appearing in the playoffs for the first time.”

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When she is not heading to track practice or doing her homework, she is combing Bergdorf Goodman for Louis Vuitton limited edition handbags and relishing in the $295 tasting menu at the celebrated Columbus Circle restaurant Per Se.

Just “relishing”; no “in.” Or perhaps we meant something like “reveling in,” that is, taking delight in.

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The nurse and the soldier may never have met - and eventually married - had it not been for the American government's mistreatment of black women during World War II. …

“My mother pitched a fit,” Mr. Albert said, who still has a copy of the letter Elinor wrote to the school superintendent and a local branch of the N.A.A.C.P.

In the first sentence, use “might,” not “may,” for the contrary-to-fact construction. In the second sentence, make it “said Mr. Albert, who …” While we prefer to avoid the journalistic mannerism of inverting attribution phrases, it's necessary here so the relative clause will be adjacent to its antecedent.

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The heart association reaffirmed that position in an interview with its spokesman on Monday, even in light of the new report.

The heart association didn't give the interview; its spokesman did. Rephrase.

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Representatives of Coca-Cola and Schneider Electric did not return requests for comment on Sunday.

Awkward phrasing. Say “did not return calls seeking comment” or “did not respond to requests for comment,” but not “did not return requests for comment.”

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Since the accident, some state lawmakers began calling for increased workplace safety inspections to be paid for by businesses.

“Since” means from then till now, so it should usually be used with the present perfect tense, not the simple past tense. Make it “Since the accident, some state lawmakers have begun …” or “After the accident, some state lawmakers began …”

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Worse, the frenzy over splitting chairman and chief executive at JPMorgan misses a crucial and fundamental point: the person that would most likely become the chairman, Lee Raymond, is already the board's “lead director” and already performs virtually the same duties that he would with the chairman title.

Use who, not that, for a person.

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One crucial question is whether America will be better off in that future with today's dysfunctional immigration laws or something else? Another interesting question is whether a major political party is going to consign itself to permanent irrelevance.

We needed a period, not a question mark, after the indirect question in the first sentence. We got it right in the second sentence.

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Argentina's religious sites have never been in such demand. The elevation of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires to Pope Francis I this spring has sparked interest in the Roman Catholic markers of his homeland.

Until Francis II comes along, this pope can be just Pope Francis; no need for the number.

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[Online summary] A combination of allied Special Operations forces and Afghan troops are set to assume more responsibility in Afghanistan as NATO gradually hands over security operations.

Make it “a combination … is set to …”

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The 37th time won't be the charm. But House Republicans are charging forward anyway this week on a vote to repeal President Obama's signature health care overhaul, which will put the number of times they have tried to eliminate, defund or curtail the law past the three-dozen mark.

Avoid the Washington jargon “defund.”

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In every administration, talking points - officially-sanctioned comments - are massaged and fought over by any agency with a stake in the outcome.

The hyphen wasn't necessary here.

When Spell-Check Can\'t Help

Add these sound-alikes to your list of words to check twice.

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At the end of the novel, the villain, U Po Kyin, an exceptionally rotund magistrate, moves to another district for a plumb job.

This was fixed between editions; the job was a “plum,” of course.

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[Headline] One Man Disperses Charity After Tragedy in Boston

A common confusion. We meant “disburse” or pay out - not “disperse,” which means scatter.

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“In the broadest sense, we want to use our knowledge and our network and our relationships to try to affect the greatest amount of good,” Ms. Powell Jobs said in one of a series of interviews with The New York Times.

A perennial challenge. “Affect” as a verb means “influence.” The verb we wanted here was “effect,” meaning “accomplish.” (This, too, was later fixed, but not before a sharp-eyed reader spotted the problem.)

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[Caption] Former President Suharto resigned 15 years ago Tuesday as Indonesia was wracked by rioting.

“Rack” and “wrack” cause confusion both as nouns and as verbs. For the verb meaning to torment, The Times's stylebook calls for “rack,” which would have worked here. “Wrack,” as a verb meaning to ruin or destroy, is considered archaic; if that's the meaning we want, use a modern synonym.

 
In a Word

This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

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Mr. Obama's approval rating in a CNN poll published on Sunday was 53 percent, little different from 51 percent in their April survey.

The plural pronoun “their” can't refer to the singular CNN (and sticklers might argue that CNN, used here as a modifier, isn't a proper antecedent in any case). Rephrase.

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BERLIN - Throughout her rise to power and as Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel has kept her personal life strictly private, to an extent that is hard to achieve in the age of social media.

This long story about Merkel's personal life never answers one of the most obvious questions: How old is she?

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During hearings in the British Parliament last week, Margaret Hodge, a member of the opposition Labour Party and chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, which oversees taxation, upbraided Matt Brittin, Google's vice president for North and Central Europe, that the company's tax practices were “devious, calculated and, in my view, unethical.”

You upbraid someone “for” something; the verb doesn't work with “that.”

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The worry is less about the newcomers' origins, they say, than about their tranquility-shattering behavior. …

Eventually came the nouveau riche with their mega-mansions, corporate planes and over-the-top tent parties.

The first choice of the stylebook and the dictionary is “tranquillity” with two L's. Also, “nouveau riche” is singular; the plural is “nouveaux riches.”

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The bill would exempt broad swathes of trades from new regulation.

The plural of “swath” is “swaths.”

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Proponents for a new station said they found this provision troubling.

“Proponents” implies “for”; make it “proponents of.”

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The collection of phone records in this manner is known as pretexting. Clearly a violation of privacy, the law was clarified in 2007 to formally make pretexting illegal.

Dangler. Pretexting, not the law, is clearly a violation of privacy.

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It's “Rashomon” on steroids: As each episode tracks one member of the hyper-dysfunctional Bluth family over roughly the same stretch of time, the story constantly circles back on itself, and information is rationed like methadone in the rehab center that first appears in Episode 3.

We have done better recently in avoiding this tired cliché; let's remain vigilant.

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But he acknowledged that teachers could probably find cheaper prices elsewhere.

The product is cheaper; the price is lower.

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Based on the comments we received, this is a common challenge - and one that is not easily resolved.

You don't “resolve” a challenge. Make it “problem” or pick a different verb, perhaps “met.”

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Just weeks ago, for instance, Mr. Karzai demanded that American Special Operations forces leave Wardak Province over allegations that coalition troops had been responsible for the torture and murder of civilians.

A colleague notes that this phrase, along with “just days,” is increasingly common and frustratingly vague. Two weeks? Ten weeks? Why not just say how long ago?

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Mr. Cook is also expected to argue that some of Apple's largest subsidiaries do not reduce Apple's tax liability, and to press for a sweeping overhaul of the United States corporate tax code - in particular, by lowering rates on companies moving foreign overseas earnings back to the United States.

A (different) colleague points out that “sweeping overhaul” and “major overhaul” are overused and usually redundant, since “overhaul” means an extensive or thorough revision. There's no such thing as a minor overhaul.

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By escaping American shores, Actavis expects to reduce its effective tax rate from about 28 percent to 17 percent, a potential savings of tens of millions of dollars per year for the company and a still larger hit to the United States Treasury.

Saving, not savings. As the stylebook says:

savings. Do not use it as a singular noun: The cuts produced a savings of $50,000. Delete a or make it saving. Also: daylight saving time.

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When the company was born in 1909, its designers Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst and Nicholas Roerich combined hues with an intensity hitherto unknown on Western stages.

What we meant was “theretofore,” but what we really wanted was “till then.” From the stylebook:

heretofore, hitherto. Both words mean until now. Do not confuse them with theretofore, meaning until then. All three words have their place, but it is in an old-fashioned legal brief. News writing calls for the simple phrases.

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Much like Mr. Bush did in 2006 when he acknowledged and emptied secret overseas C.I.A. prisons, Mr. Obama appears intent on countering criticism of his most controversial policies by reorienting them to meet changing conditions.

Avoid using “like” as a conjunction, introducing a full clause. Make it “much as” or “just as.” (We fixed it in time for later editions.)

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Evidence from crude data sets like these are prone to confirmation bias.

Agreement problem. Evidence is singular; make it “is prone,” not “are prone.”

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Gene Munster, one of the lead analysts on the survey, said that if anything, the results showed that the taste and interest of Web users, particularly younger ones, was fickle and fleeting.

And another one. Make it “were,” to agree with the compound subject.

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Rescuers hoped to finish their search for survivors just more than 24 hours after the Oklahoma City area was hit by a storm nearly two miles across.

The perfectly acceptable idiom is “just over,” not “just more than.”

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Instead, it can both be true that population density matters immensely to suicide rates and true that depressed people are more at risk of suicide on average regardless of where they live - that it may be better to be depressed in Alabama than in Montana, but it's also better not to be depressed at all.

This wasn't parallel; rephrase. For example: “it can be true both that … and that …”

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Her role in the 25 minutes that comprise “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” may not have been as prominent as those of Mr. Shatner or Mr. Cravat.

The whole comprises the parts, not the other way around. Here, we could simply say “the 25 minutes of ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.'”

Spoiler Alert: Phrase Is Overused

A graph from the “Chronicle” tool - created by my colleague Alexis Lloyd to track use of words and phrases in The Times - shows the history of the phrase “spoiler alert.”

This colloquial, even cutesy, phrase became popular some years back in online discussions of movies, books and TV, as a courtesy to alert a reader if a plot twist was about to be revealed. But as the graph suggests, we've become infatuated with it in the last few years, and we're on track for a record this year. The expression has spread far beyond its original purpose, and now often seems like an all-purpose plea for attention: Hey! I'm about to tell you something interesting! In most cases it does nothing to actually alert the reader, since the “spoiler” is often the very next phrase.

Let's raise the bar for this overused quirk. A few recent examples we could probably have done without:

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If a kitchen represents a temperate forest, few of its plants would be poison ivy. Most of the inhabitants are relatively benign. In any event, eradicating them is neither possible nor desirable. Dr. Fierer wants to make visible this intrinsic, if unseen, aspect of everyday life. “For a lot of the general public, they don't care what's in soil,” he said. “People care more about what's on their pillowcase.” (Spoiler alert: The microbes living on your pillowcase are not all that different from those living on your toilet seat. Both surfaces come in regular contact with exposed skin.)

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With the season finale of “Parks and Rec” suggesting that his character may about to become - spoiler alert! - a father, Margy Rochlin met with Mr. Offerman to find out about his one-man stage show; what advice Frank might give Ron about parenthood; and what's on the menu at a Ron Swanson-themed tailgate party.

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While some people may question why the Army is getting into a genre like program-length commercials, “We approach it in such a way that would belie any such negativity,” Ms. Nocella said, by “pulling the curtain back on the recruiting process” and depicting “the truth of what it means to be a soldier.”

The Army “may not be for everybody,” she added, “and everybody is not for the Army.”

Spoiler alert. Of the 10 civilians who appear in “Starting Strong,” initially “two decided to join the Army and a third decided to join the Army Reserves,” Mr. Davis said, adding that subsequently the number reached “seven or eight.”

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While the museum will not confirm who will attend until Monday night, things do tend to leak. As usual, the star power will be overwhelming, and while things can always change, those rumored to be coming (spoiler alert!) include Jennifer Lopez with Michael Kors, Gwyneth Paltrow with Valentino, and Jennifer Lawrence and Marion Cotillard with Dior. Alexander Wang is said to be working on a custom Balenciaga look for Julianne Moore.

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So I ignored Kevin's texts and calls, patiently waiting for him to realize we really were supposed to be together. When I was back home for New Year's I made sure every status advertised my whereabouts for the night. How else was he going to burst in at midnight to tell me he couldn't live without me? Spoiler alert: he didn't.

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Zicasso, an online luxury travel service, is offering an eight-day journey starting at $3,250 per person (excluding airfare) that visits Highclere Castle in Newbury, England, home to a real earl and countess that doubles as the Downton estate in the show, as well as other filming locations in Oxfordshire, and a country home in Staffordshire. You can also channel (spoiler alert!) poor Matthew Crawley's last days by adding on an excursion to Inveraray Castle in the Scottish Highlands, a place that Season 3 viewers know as Duneagle.

 
In a Word

This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

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Mr. Griffin argued MSNBC's coverage of the Boston bombings matched any other channel's, though he acknowledged that the network had access to Mr. Williams, one of the stars of the Boston coverage, only when he wasn't on NBC.

This would be smoother and read less like journalese with “that” after “argued.”

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At the time, experts believed that a married woman should work only to kill time while searching for a husband or to fill time after the children had left home.

A confusing sentence; clearly the first situation applies to an “unmarried woman.”

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But large amounts of foreign alcohol is smuggled in, and many Iranians drink a kind of homemade vodka known as arak sagi, or dog sweat.

Agreement problem. Make it “large amounts - are smuggled in” or “a large amount … is smuggled in.”

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Ms. Tutterow said she was not taken aback by the amount of negative reactions or their tone, but, “We're a bit surprised it's turned into a story.”

Number, not amount, with the plural “reactions.”

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But Aaron Goldman, a former accountant and sales manager in a blue baseball cap, jumped to his feet and banged on the table as plastic wear bounced.

We meant “ware,” not “wear” (later fixed online), and the compound should probably be one word, like silverware.

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Us joke-makers both professional and nonprofessional need to be adept at temperature-gauging, and to be quick to put the “more” in “remorse.”

Even with the light tone of this piece, we needed “we joke-makers” as the subject.

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The Chinese government has insisted it is a victim of cyberattacks, not a perpetrator, and Chinese officials have vigorously denied the extensive evidence gathered by the Pentagon and private security experts that a unit of the People's Liberation Army, Unit 61398 outside Shanghai, is behind many of the most sophisticated attacks on the United States.

An awkward phrase. They deny the allegation, or they dispute or reject the evidence.

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The risks became apparent on Sunday when relatives confirmed that Mr. Samaras, 55, along with his 24-year-old son, Paul, and his colleague, Carl Young, 45, were killed while chasing the storms that ravaged parts of Oklahoma on Friday.

Agreement problem. Make it “Mr. Samaras … was killed.” The prepositional phrase beginning “along with” does not make the subject plural.

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The setting was not a dark city street but a 9,000-square-foot estate in a green, historic Connecticut town whose residents have included Eugene O'Neill, Judy Collins and Henry Luce.

Presumably we meant that the house - not the entire estate - was 9,000 square feet, which is less than a quarter of an acre.

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Tomic said he had not decided whom that person would be, but that perhaps it would come before the grass-court season begins in the run-up to Wimbledon.

Make it “who,” not “whom.”

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GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. - In the middle of the enduring conflict between liberty and public welfare stands Joyce Osborn Wilson and her teeth-whitening business.

Make the verb plural to agree with the compound subject (“stand Joyce Osborn and her teeth-whitening business”), or rephrase.

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But really, neither the Radwanskas, who are much younger, nor Serena, who might be playing the best tennis of her career at age 31, are in Venus's position.

In a neither/nor construction, the verb must agree with the nearer part of the subject, in this case the singular Serena. Better still, rephrase.

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But neither Rutgers nor Parker were aware of the existence of a two-page letter that her players wrote in 1997, saying she abused them and forced them to “endure mental cruelty.”

Another agreement problem. Make it “neither Rutgers nor Parker was aware.”

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“I fully anticipate the mainstream liberal media to put a detrimental spin on my decision not to seek a fifth term,” she said in a gauzy network-television quality video posted on her campaign Web site.

We needed two hyphens to hold the modifier together: “network-television-quality.” Or simply “network-quality.”

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Already, the mulish behavior of Congressional Republicans has led to the creation of the sequester, blocked action on economic growth and climate change, prevented reasonable checks on gun purchases and threatens to blow up a hard-fought compromise on immigration.

Not parallel. The “has” is understood with the subsequent verbs, but it doesn't work with “threatens.” Rephrase.

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Accusations about Ms. Hermann's behavior at Louisville and Tennessee, including reportedly abusive conduct toward players on a volleyball team she coached, dominated the college sports world, plunging her and Rutgers into a controversy for the second time in as many months. …

Others said that it felt like Ms. Hermann had been fast-tracked ahead of other candidates.

In the second sentence, don't use “like” as a conjunction; make it “it felt as if …”

In the first passage, note the admonition in The Times's stylebook:

as many. Avoid this mannerism: twice in as many days; third in as many days. The wording is untidy because the phrase as many requires a cardinal number for completion (as many as two; as many as three). Make it twice in two days and third in three days. With a cardinal number (five times in as many days), the phrase is more grammatical, but still journalese.

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While trying to stand up, the agent, who suffered a wound to his face from the table that required stitches, drew his gun and saw Mr. Todashev running at him with a metal pole, according to the official, adding that it might have been a broomstick.

We should have started over with this awkward and confusing sentence.

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Who says pizza delivery is just for dorm rooms and children's birthday parties?

This lead is odd. Plenty of grownups, including most of our readers, order pizza for delivery occasionally. Rather than start with a question premise that seems off-kilter, perhaps we should have focused on the trend in question: delivered pizza as the main course at otherwise fancy public events.

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City officials say that the carousel's operator may not take “creative liberties” with any future renovation work, but instead must follow the painting pattern that has already been proscribed.

“Proscribed” means forbidden or denounced; we wanted “prescribed.”

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This is behavior not becoming of a congresswoman.

This construction with “becoming” - or, more commonly, “unbecoming” - doesn't take “of.” For example: “conduct unbecoming an officer.”

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While the bacteria, which causes fruit to turn bitter and drop from the trees when still unripe, affects all citrus fruits, it has been most devastating to oranges, the largest crop.

“Bacteria” is plural.

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On a sunny Wednesday, with a faint haze hanging over the Rockies, Noah Fierer eyed the field site from the back of his colleague's Ford Explorer.

The verb “eyed” has a tabloid flavor and is oddly vague. Did he carefully observe, survey, gaze at, study?

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Consumer spending has also been strikingly resilient so far this year, given the tax hikes.

The stylebook says, “Do not use hike as a synonym for increase, whether noun or verb.”

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Ms. Francis's show, originally broadcast from Sardi's, the theater district restaurant, became known for the wide range of guests Ms. Bach booked, including Ellington, Leopold Stokowski and Carl Sandburg.

Following two sibilant sounds, we didn't want another S after the apostrophe here. From the stylebook:

possessives. Ordinarily form a possessive by adding ‘s to a singular noun (the boy's boots; the girl's coat), even if the noun already ends in an s (The Times's article). If the word ends in two sibilant sounds (ch, j, s, sh, x or z) separated only by a vowel sound, drop the s after the apostrophe (Kansas' climate; Texas' population). But keep the s after the apostrophe when a name ends in a silent sibilant letter (Arkansas's; Malraux's).

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But the Obama-Christie bromance is about so much more than that.

This recent slang is already looking awfully tired.