The leading apostrophe stands in for the missing numbers and the ess (s) indicates the plural of the years 1990 to 1999.  A common but incorrect way of writing this is 90’s.  The leading apostrophe is missing which completely changes the meaning of the word and brings up the question “Ninety what?”  The apostrophe ess (90’s) changes the plural of the decade of the ‘90s to a singular possessive requiring an object which is, in these cases, always missing.

Print journalists have a great deal to answer for in the incorrect reconstruction of the American English language. This is one.

Writing English can be seen as a function of good manners.  Etiquette is the knowledge and art of inclusion, of setting another at ease.  As well, language has as its raison d’etre the intention and means of sending a thought in the form of a coded message (language) from one mind to another as a bridge to share the experiences of life.  The trick is to do this in such a way that the unknown (the source message) can be made known (decoded correctly into a reasonable version of the original).

If the message is not sent in such a way that allows the receiver to decode it more-or-less correctly, then the message isn’t a message, it remains a secret, an unknown, until some means is found for transmission.

Please:

Write in complete sentences.

Stop putting apostrophes before every ess (s) when a word ends with ess.

The apostrophe, in most cases, incorrectly transforms a plural (created by the simple addition of an ess) into a singular possessive without benefit of an object.  (Examples)

The personal possessive pronouns are:  his, hers, its, their or theirs.  ‘Its’ in this case is a personal pronoun in the neutral gender and should never be written ‘it’s’.  ‘It’s’ is a contraction of, for instance, ‘it is’, or ‘it has’, etc.

An abbreviation for a specific year or a decade is correctly written as follows:  For instance, 1990, abbreviated for the specific year becomes ‘90.  An indication of the decade of the nineteen nineties becomes ’90s.

The leading apostrophe stands in for the missing numbers and the ess (s) indicates the plural of the years 1990 to 1999.  A common but incorrect way of writing this is 90’s.  The leading apostrophe is missing which completely changes the meaning of the word and brings up the question “Nineties what?”  The apostrophe ess (90’s) changes the plural of the decade of the ’90s to a singular possessive requiring an object which is, in these cases, always missing.

‘Illiterate’ means without letters.  Is that you?  That’s all of us to some extent, as there is no possible means to learn everything there is to know about any given subject.

But to what extent?  Are you exercising good manners in communication by allowing another to receive and decode what you’re sending?  Or are you a mush mouth who mumbles everything through that mouth (or mind) full of oatmeal?  Do you take pride in it, thinking it makes people pay more attention to you?  Here’s the 411:  It makes you boring and appear stupid.  Maybe you are stupid – how would anyone, or you, know or be able to find out?

Maybe you don’t know how, or consider it beneath you, to write in such a way that another can read and understand your words.  If you’re in marketing, maybe you are reaching for the ‘common touch’ in your languaging and unfortunately overreach and end up appearing rude, crude, and yes, once again, illiterate.  Do you understand the effect this has on your credibility?  Or why someone might be repelled by your appearance of ignorance, stupidity, and plain bad manners?  Why would anyone spend money with you if you are unable or unwilling to present yourself with simple respect for yourself and for the other?