In his groundbreaking book Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America, Vivek Bald uses newspaper articles, census...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• In his groundbreaking book Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America,
  • Vivek Bald
    • uses newspaper articles, census records, ships' logs, and memoirs
      • to tell the [story/stories(?)] of the South Asian immigrant[s(?)],
        • who made New York City their home
          • in the early twentieth century.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's read from the beginning:

"In his groundbreaking book Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America"

• This sets the context - we're talking about a book that Vivek Bald wrote
• The book is about South Asian history in America

"Vivek Bald uses newspaper articles, census records, ships' logs, and memoirs"

• He's gathering information from multiple different sources
• These are historical documents and personal accounts

"to tell the ____"

• This is where we have the blank

Let's look at the choices:

• A. story's of the South Asian immigrants
• B. story's of the South Asian immigrants'
• C. stories of the South Asian immigrants
• D. stories' of the South Asian immigrant's

We're deciding between:

• story vs. stories (singular vs. plural)
• Where apostrophes go (or if they're needed at all)

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

"to tell the ____ of the South Asian immigrants who made New York City their home in the early twentieth century"

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• Bald is telling something ABOUT "South Asian immigrants" (plural - multiple people)
• These are the people who came to NYC in the early 1900s
• He's using many different sources (newspapers, records, logs, memoirs)
• This suggests he's capturing diverse, individual experiences

So the complete picture is:

• Vivek Bald is using various sources to tell the stories (plural - multiple accounts) of multiple immigrants

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "stories of the South Asian immigrants"
  • "stories" needs to be simple plural (multiple stories)
  • "of the South Asian immigrants" is a phrase telling us what the stories are ABOUT
  • "immigrants" needs to be simple plural (multiple people)

• We're not showing possession (something belonging to someone)
  • We're just talking about multiple stories and multiple people
  • The word "of" already shows the relationship between the stories and the immigrants
  • So we don't need any apostrophes - just plural forms

The correct answer is C: "stories of the South Asian immigrants"

• "stories" - plural, no apostrophe
• "immigrants" - plural, no apostrophe

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Understanding Plurals vs. Possessives: When to Use Apostrophes

Apostrophes have specific jobs - they show possession (ownership) or contractions. They are NOT used to make regular plural forms:

Simple Plural (just multiple of something) - NO apostrophe:

• The immigrants arrived in New York
• These stories reveal important history
• Multiple things/people, just add -s or -es

Possessive (showing ownership/belonging) - YES apostrophe:

• The immigrant's journey (singular: one immigrant's journey)
• The immigrants' experiences (plural: belonging to multiple immigrants)
• Something belongs to someone, add apostrophe

The key test: Ask yourself "Is something belonging to someone, or do I just have multiple of something?"

In this question:

• "stories of the South Asian immigrants"
  • stories = just plural (multiple stories) → no apostrophe
  • immigrants = just plural (multiple people) → no apostrophe
  • The word "of" shows the relationship (stories ABOUT immigrants)
  • No ownership is happening, so no apostrophes needed

Another example to show the difference:

• "The stories of the students" → simple plurals, no possession
• "The student's story" → one student possesses/has a story
• "The students' stories" → multiple students possess/have stories