Maybe I'm paying more attention to it than I normall would, but I've
seen apostrophes included just about everywhere these days.
 Examples, "1/2 price on all photo's."  "PC's on sale this week." 
"Apple's sold by the bushel here."
 I received an excellent education at my local school system, and I
believe I learned all of the finer points of punctuation.
 My understanding is that the apostrophe is NEVER appropriate to
indicate a plurality.
 What's correct in this case?

Hi pcventures-ga :)

Generally speaking, apostrophes are not used to indicate plurality -
they are used to indicate the possessive form of most singular nouns. 
For example, "PC's on sale this week" should be noted as "PCs on sale
this week" and "Apple's sold by the bushel here" should be noted as
"Apples sold by the bushel here" whereas if someone asked you who
answered Question ID: 264619, you'd be likely to comment, "Oh, that's
jem-ga's answer" (well, in fact, you'd probably say "Hey, that's my
answer!" but I think you get the point!):)

See http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/possessives.htm and 

http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/plurals.htm

for further reference on this. 

There are, however, exceptions to the rule above (i.e. in relation to
plurality) and this is strictly in relation to either plural nouns
that end in the letter "s" or certain plural nouns that need to be
made possessive by adding "'s".

See The Armchair Punctuator at:

http://community-2.webtv.net/solis-boo/Grammar2/page12.html

for specific examples such as "boys' club" and "women's fashions".

The entry on the use of apostrophes at Info Please's website found at:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001610.html

provides a short and convenient outline and you should also have a
look at About.com's excellent reference re: apostrophes ("Plurals,
Possessives and Contractions") found at:

http://teenwriting.about.com/library/weekly/aa081202a.htm 

Kind regards
jem-ga :)

Very good answer.  Thank You.

I live in St. Johns County (St. Augustine, FL). Many years ago the
county commission deleted the apostrophe in "John's" in keeping with
the USGS policy of disregarding them in all place names. If any
punctuation mark is destined for the grammatical dustbin, it's surely
the apostrophe.

It depends on your audience.  If your audience is english teachers,
then you have to follow the "rules" (where english teachers decide
what the rules are).  On the other hand, if you're mass-marketing to
the general population, you can use apostrophes liberally, because
they increase readability.  The point of writing is to get an idea
across.  If you have to invent some words or punctuation, go ahead and
do it.  Communicating with people is not like writing code on a
computer -- you have to convey concepts, not meticulous instructions.


One question I have about your apples quote:
  "Apple's sold by the bushel here"
is whether that was for computers or fruits?  If you were talking
about fruits the apostrophe should definitely go.  But if you were
talking about computers, I would leave the apostrophe in, not just for
legibility, but because "Apple" as a servicemark is not supposed to be
used by itself or else it becomes generic and looses its trademark
status (like "Thermos" should have been called "Thermos containers"). 
You're supposed to say "Apple computers" with Apple describing a type
of computer.  In that case, "Apple's" is more or less a contraction of
"Apple computers" and the apostrophe should stay.  And "Apple's" helps
the "Apple" as a brandname stand out.

>On the other hand, if you're mass-marketing to
>the general population, you can use apostrophes liberally, because
>they increase readability.

I consider this "pandering" and I wish to not partake in it.
I asked this question because I'm in search of what's ultimately
correct.  Whatever is ultimately correct is what I wish to use
in any writing I do.  If someone corrects my grammar, diction
or spelling, I welcome the opportunity to improve.
In addition, your comment also didn't do a whole lot for me when
you used, "looses" instead of "loses."

Hi pcventures-ga :)

Many thanks for the positive rating and the tip.

Kind regards
jem-ga :)

"Pandering" is not so sinister it deserves "quotes".  Pandering is
reaching out to an audience.  Unless you're a schoolteacher or lawyer
or such, your job is to use writing as a tool to get a point across,
not to "enforce" american english rules.  Where did the "rules" came
from anyway?  They're not gospel.  They're bastardizations of latin.

And please show respect.  Don't pick on "looses" when you're typing
words like "normall".  Time spent proofing typos on internet postings
is not time well spent.

I know this is an old thread now, but hey -- it's still here.

In my view, if pcventures-ga is still out there, he/she should pretty
much stick with his/her grammatical education and ignore advice like
"you can use apostrophes liberally, because they increase
readability".  Using apostrophes in ways not sanctioned by the rules
of grammar make you look illiterate, not just to schoolteachers but to
everyone who knows what the rules are.

Sure, the rules are arbitrary, and some of them are based on Latin
(though not this one), but they're still rules.  You won't go to jail
for breaking them, but you'll look like a cowboy outfit; people write
letters to the newspapers ridiculing you, and so on.  Maybe that's
unfair, but that's how it is.

In some very rare cases it may be appropriate to use an apostrophe-S
construction to mark a plural; some people do it after single letters
or numbers (as in, "mind your P's and Q's") though I'd avoid it unless
there's a real risk of ambiguity or illegibility otherwise.  Most of
the time adding inappropriate apostrophes doesn't increase
readability; quite the opposite.  In Standard English there are
separate ways to mark plurality and possession, and it's useful to
keep them separate.

The "Apple's" example suggested by snsh-ga is extremely creative but
I'd expect snsh-ga is pretty much on his/her own there.  Although
trademark-holders don't like us to use their trademarks as nouns, they
don't make the rules either, and real humans don't use "Apple's" as a
contraction of "Apple(tm)-brand personal computers" -- they use it
like they use any other noun, and add an -s to pluralise it.  Brand
names don't need apostrophes to stand out; they've got initial
capitals for that.