Dear Geist,
How do you punctuate “dos and donts”? I’m going to include a little do-and-don’t section in a blog post I’m writing, with the plurals, but everyone seems to punctuate them differently.
—Paperback blogger, 100 Mile House BC
Dear Paperback,
You can find authoritative backup for any punctuation, as long as you retain the apostrophe in “don’t.” We like “do’s and don’ts,” for readability—in our view, “dos” can be read as DOS (the operating system). The Canadian Oxford Dictionary prefers “dos” for the plural, but accepts “do’s.” Some language wranglers just can’t bring themselves to hyphenate the plural (do’s), although it’s routine in other uses, including grades (“He got all A’s”) and such phrases as “mind your p’s and q’s.”
—The Editors
