Really? The difference between "its" and "it's" is so hard to decipher? Apparently for the writer of this article, it is.
This is the point where I remind you just how prone I am to typos of all kinds, and it's true: anyone can slip an apostrophe into most the inappropriate linguistic crevasse. Yet an increasingly large number of students and even professional journalists seem to make this error. I wish they'd stop.
I wonder about the most effective reminder to help folks avoid the its/it's dilemma. So far, the best I can discern is a simple reminder: "it's" always means "it is" or "it has" and any sentence with "it's" should be capable of being read that way. Otherwise, stick with "its."
Oh yeah. "Get over it. No one cares" won't work. Sorry. It's a passion of mine.
1 comment:
It's nice to know someone feels the same as I do about this. While I'm not always grammatically correct, I do try. I wrote an article once for a local paper and the editor dumbed it down to a 4th grade reading level (literally), "so the readers could understand it better." Also, it seems to me that people increasingly spell words how they (as individuals) pronounce them, thereby using them incorrectly in sentences (and obviously misunderstanding the meaning). "Perspective" instead of "Prospective," etc. Also, using "Pointe" instead of "Point." I especially hate it when journalists and editors don't seem to know the difference. I'll stop ranting....
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