You don't have to stray into the comments to see misused apostrophes. There is one in Bri Pruett's piece published just two hours ago on Slog.

3. Girl’s are the brakes, boys are the gas.

thank you, dave.

@kitschnsync, fixed! Thanks for noticing!

@4, You bet. You should probably link her Twitter handle at the end of the piece too. ;)

Their you go shaming they're pour grammer, again.

Baffled at this series of wrist slapping when the Stranger frequently misses the mark itself -- as per @1. Do as I say, not as I do?

Also -- it might be worth pointing out why people misuse "it's." Possessives in English also use an apostrophe, and "its" is an exception, isn't it?

It is time to simplify the language. Their meaning is never unclear. This is the modern version of ending a sentence with a preposition.

Oh fuck you and your mom, Dave.

"Its" is a stupid word that should die in a heap with other English anachronisms. People who write dictionaries and styles guides used to go out of their way to be dicks. They launched an organized effort to make our language technical and inaccessible. Hatred for the unwashed masses has no place in modern English, and it's sad to see people defend their work to justify humanities degrees.

"Its" was one of their stupider inventions. It breaks the norm for making nouns possessive, and it resolves zero ambiguity. There are no cases where using "it's" wouldn't be clear in context. Bitching about it is the WORST kind of pedantry.

Meanwhile, there are more evil quirks in grammar and English that we could talk about. They're are things we could actually fix in our language to make it better.

Passive voice is invading everything. It masks actors and shelters dick-holes. Shit-heads abuse definite articles to universalize their dumb takes into make-shift proverbs. Nominalizations are out of fucking control, painting a static world without agency. Braindead Latin borrow words are turning all political discourse into empty name calling.

You're basically just being a pompous ass while refusing to write something of substance. And you could do better yourself. I popped your whole article into Readable.io. You should try that before you hit publish because you could have done a lot better.

I agree, this is a simple rule, and why people- particularly people who write for a living- can't adhere to it is bizarre.
My second grade teacher taught me the easiest (and cutest) poem to remember this rule:

When it is "it is,"
It's "it's."
When it is "its,"
It's not.

Also, LukeJosef sounds like an angry little twit. Not sure what's up with that.

Also: @The Chicken, in answer to your question:
"Also -- it might be worth pointing out why people misuse "it's." Possessives in English also use an apostrophe, and "its" is an exception, isn't it?
The Chicken "

"Its" isn't an exception. It adheres to the non-apostrophe rules of pronouns: his house, her house, your house, my house, our house, and its house.

Your analogy of the NBA players repeatedly missing shots is perfect.

Because even the best of the best of the NBA miss a shot ON OCCASION.

To look at one piece of writing by one writer and paint them with this "failure" is intellectually dishonest.

Better to use your energy in doing something like this. It is a permanent solution and provides great satisfaction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXNODX7t…

I suspect some people conflate their association with possession ala proper nouns due to some wonky elementary school lessons.

@12 That apostrophizer dude is the worst and should be sentenced to having an extraneous apostrophe inserted at the end of his legal name.

I feel your pain, Dave, and so does Al

Word CRIMES!!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoD…

@11

""Its" isn't an exception. It adheres to the non-apostrophe rules of pronouns: his house, her house, your house, my house, our house, and its house.

I dunno about this. "His" and "our", etc. are whole-word possessives. Unlike "its", you don't get another word when you take off the "s" at the end.

People get confused about "it's" vs. "its" because it violates the noun + possession = noun's rule. Washington + possession = Washington's. Jim + possession = Jim's. The university + possession = the university's.
And then along comes it + possession = its.

It's weird.

Suggested reading/reference:
https://www.grizzlypeakpress.com/jenny-h…

@11 Except that he, she, and we are all changed to completely different words for possessives, and you gets an "r." Other pronouns take an apostrophe and an "s" -- everybody's, anyone's, etc., but they're not, of course, personal pronouns.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just offering an explanation for why people make the mistake that was overlooked in the original.

And pointing out that the Stranger could use some tighter editing itself.

The misuse of inch and foot marks for apostrophe marks and quote marks has become rampant (except in Washington Post screenshots.)

"it bodes ill"

[citation needed]

There's no evidence it bodes a damn thing. It's not even a syntactic error, it's a spelling error, probably due to monkey-brain confusion with other possessive forms that use an apostrophe. Correct it and move on.

Between the auto-correct function on phones, the spell check function on computers (twhich allows anything through as long as it's a word), people's less-than-perfect typing / thumbing skills, and the "lack of time for proofreading," there's probably no hope.

@9, you seem really mad about Segal (or anybody) wishing people would use proper grammar.

Awful picture, 17.

", but also numerous inelegant ways in which to express such wrongheadedness." Does that start with an Oxford comma, or is it just wrong?

Two words- thank you.

Hey Dave, would you mind giving your colleague's Morning News post a once-over? If you're gonna preach tidying up, there's some tidying up to do there.

Like westello @24, I'm commenting here to say thank you to Dave Segal for fighting the good fight. If you asked me, what is the one grammatical error or writing tic that I find myself being bothered by the most often, I would immediately say the interchanging of its and it's. And often, I'll see the same writer in the same document make this mistake in both directions. At least they're being consistent.

As mush as I addmire Dan’s artikle, letz face it. Millanals can bearly read, let alone right. If it can’t fit widin 140 caracters or an acronim no 1 gets then Oh well. Itz not like any1 will care once there long gon from da mortal koil. Mayb when teachers strike 4 more money this fall they cn a dress the issue of stile. Or mayb mom & dad can help learn there kids too.

I would guess that most people who make the mistake actually know the rule. Or at least know that a rule exists. They make the mistake for a number of reasons. Some are just old fashioned typos ("an" instead of "and"). Some have had a few, and are in no position to form a perfect sentence, but still have something to say. Other people are just in too big of a hurry to look it up, even if they have doubts. Most typos can be avoided by sounding out each word, but this one can't.

Such is life. It used to be very hard to actually type something. This meant that you wrote and rewrote before you actually sat down and did that "final draft". You made sure that every little bit of what you wrote was perfect, because you sure as fuck didn't want to have to type something twice. It was hard enough typing a page without making a mistake.

Since it is so much easier to type, you are bound to have sloppier writing. The funny thing is, it is also much easier to figure out if you are doing it right. Looking up words in the dictionary used to be a pain in the ass. Looking up grammatical rules was just as hard. Now, if you are typing in a browser (or most browsers, anyway) you can do a right click, and search for that word. So that means if I write "their" and doubt myself, I can be on this page in less than a second. Same with "its". There it is, right there. In both cases I don't need to drill into the details -- Google has presented me with the key elements immediately. If I'm still a bit confused, I can easily find out more.

@21 Not really. I hate pedants. And this was pedantic as fuck. "Its" is a stupid hill to die on. It's reactionary and elitist. And it's does real harm. It makes people feel superior in an activity that doesn't address real problems in English writing. There are issues much more severe and that have more impact. I listed some. Plus, Dave's piece is not well written enough to be sanctimonious.

@23 If we take that whole chunk:

"Beyond this, they also reveal not just limitless ignorance about a vast array of subjects, but also numerous inelegant ways in which to express such wrongheadedness. Before you protest, "#notallinternetcommenters," I will grant that some are cogent, witty, and well-informed; but they are in the minority."

It's a fucking shitshow. No, that comma is wrong. But he repeats "also" too. A cursory proof read would have stuck the first one. Ditto for "in which." That's some sophomoric fluffy shit.

The semi-colon is also wrong. And that's fucking comical given what this article is about. That's a pretty basic rule of punctuation--one professional writers can usually be expected to know.

@30 I came in here specifically to point out the confused use of that semi-colon in the first paragraph. You'd be forgiven for imagining an article about grammar would be hyper-sensitive in its own use of grammar, and yet here we are. Personally I love using semi-colons in writing, but I will acknowledge that their misuse is rampant. Either keep the "but" in the sentence and change the semi-colon into a good ol' comma, or keep the semi-colon and remove the "but".

@29 - I see pedantry as being a pain in the ass about things that don't matter. "Its" and "it's" are different words and mean different things. To me that matters.