Plural vs. possessive
SAT glossary · Course Foundations
Definition
Two independent decisions in one blank: 'essays' is plural and nothing belongs to it, so no apostrophe; 'the author's' is singular possessive because the essays belong to one author. Distractors mix the two so that each wrong option gets exactly one decision right.
Plural vs. possessive in plain English
A single blank can secretly require you to make TWO completely separate grammar decisions at once. For instance: is 'essays' plural (in which case it needs NO apostrophe, since nothing belongs TO the essays), and is 'author's' a singular possessive (needing an apostrophe-s, because the essays belong to exactly ONE author)? The wrong answer choices are deliberately built to get exactly ONE of these two decisions right and the other one wrong — so you can't just glance at an option and think 'that looks about right,' you have to actually check both decisions independently.
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