It's all really very simple, isn't it?

Yes, I'm still talking about the "its/it's" dilemma. To make it even trickier these days, when you want to type "its," autocorrect will usually change it into the incorrect "it's."

What?

It's all about context. Autocorrect doesn't always recognize context. Or to put it more simply, the way you use "it's/its" in you sentence will determine whether or not autocorrect replaces it with a correct form or an error.

Remember, when you use "it's" as a contraction of the pronoun "it" and the verb "is," you require an apostrophe to indicate the letter "i" has been removed.

And when you use "its" as a possessive pronoun, no apostrophe is required. Only you, as the writer, know what you mean to say. Autocorrect does not. It just does what it's been programmed to do.

This means that the chance of making an apostrophe error as you fire off a text or email is huge. If you care about using the language properly, you have to slow down and reread what you've written and actually ask yourself if you want your "it's" to mean "it is."

If not, you have to use "its."

For example:

It's pretty good for a frozen pizza. (It is pretty good...).

But its crust was soggy. (The crust that belonged to the pizza was soggy).

In the last example, autocorrect erroneously corrected my word "its" to "it's." I had to manually change it (or else turn autocorrect off).

So you see, not understanding the rules is just one reason so many people make errors with apostrophes. And technology isn't making it any easier for us to get it right.

Apostrophes 101

I like apostrophes a lot.  But then I like all punctuation marks. The reason I like apostrophes so much, though, is because the people who use them often tend to use them too enthusiastically.

Haven't we all see signs advertising "Wine's and Spirit's"?  "Bacon, Egg's and Pancake's"?

And then there are the people who seem to be afraid of the little squiggle and don't use apostrophes at all. You know, the folks who type "cant" for "can't" and "an hours wages" instead of "an hour's wages"?

The apostrophe is a crooked little mark that looks exactly like a comma, but, of course, plays a much different role. As I've already said, the apostrophe is used in eight different applications, and perhaps that's why it's misused so regularly.

Inevitably, when you look at websites that feature funny punctuation errors in signage, most of the mistakes involve apostrophes. "Its" and "it's" are probably the most regularly confused words in the English language,

And rightly so. They look almost identical, don't they?

But their meaning is worlds apart.

I'm sure nobody cares when I confess that my pet peeve as a teacher is the misuse of these two words. But it really bugs me that almost no one gets them right (consistently right, I mean). Of course "autocorrect" often makes these mistakes for you, and it takes an astute writer to keep checking that his correct word hasn't automatically morphed into an incorrect form.

But really, it's all very simple.

"Its" is always the possessive form of the gender neutral pronoun "it."

Oregon is coastal and its climate is variable.
Why don't you plan to visit its main tourist spots?

"It's" is always a contraction of two words: "it"and "is."  Period.

See? Simple.

The weather outside is frightful. It's going to rain buckets. (It is going to rain buckets).
It's always a good idea to carry an umbrella when it's threatening rain.
(It is always a good idea to carry an umbrella when it is threatening rain).

At least I didn't have to remove the apostrophes

As I mentioned in my last post, I was feeling a bit down in the mouth because I had to edit out much of the fancy punctuation when I prepared my novels for publication as ebooks. (By "fancy punctuation" I mean parentheses, colons, and semicolons). Apparently these mess with the electronic scanners or something like that. But, I suspect the other reason for omitting these fancy-pants punctuation marks is because they tend to mess up a reader's head.

My twenty-plus years of teaching composition have taught me that people don't understand colons and semicolons. When they run into one or the other they often feel a slight confusion, at best, or panic. Parentheses, on the other hand, are a little easier on the brain. But I had to remove  all of them from my work. This meant no complex sentences, no compound-complex sentences; I couldn't use an anticipatory introductory phrase to introduce a sentence, either. And definitely no aside comments (personal or otherwise) imbedded anywhere in the text.

So what's left?

Commas. I can still do commas. But not too many of them. Too many mess up a reader's head.

Of course apostrophes are permitted. Why? Because they are absolutely necessary to comprehension.

And that brings me to the subject of my first punctuation posting: apostrophes really do matter and you should learn how to use them.

According to Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots & Leaves) the apostrophe made its debut in English in the sixteenth century. Back then, it was used only to indicate omitted letters in a word: "don't" and "o'clock," for example.  In Greek, the word apostrophe means "turning away" or "omission."

 It wasn't until the seventeenth century that the apostrophe began to be used to indicate the possessive case. Today, the apostrophe's burden is a heavy one, serving no fewer than eight functions.

In my next posting, I'll begin to run through all eight. I welcome any good examples of proper or improper use of the poor misunderstood apostrophe.

I've Got the Punctuation Blues

This week has been horrendously busy, as the last week of winter often is. Spring cleaning for house guests, getting out into the garden to clean up the mess of winter storms, and editing most of the punctuation out of my last novel have collectively just about done me in.

Most people understand the first two chores, but might wonder why I have to edit out most of the punctuation in my novel.

Because most readers today don't understand those pesky little dots and squiggles we writers like to stick between the letters of our words (apostrophes and hyphens) and the words of our sentences (semi-colons, colons, parentheses, dashes, etc.).

I'm an English teacher. I've taught college students the why's and how's of those dots and squiggles for many years. And now I'm going to blog about punctuation--the lost art.

I'll discuss why punctuation is important, and give lots of clear, concise examples of correct and incorrect usage. Readers should be understand the difference between a hyphen and a dash,  single vs. double quotation marks, and where to place the darned period when writing a line of dialogue.

Because, with the enormous number of people using text to communicate, correct punctuation is more important than ever.