Common Writing Errors #2

Apostrophe pin from tiarabuttons on Etsy

It's Saturday! It's April! Yay! Isn't Spring wonderful? Today's post is about possession! No, not like possessing wealth or property, or even being in control of the ball out on the field! It's (it is*)about using apostrophes. 1)Apostrophes can be used to denote the absence of a letter/s in a contraction i.e. can't, won't, I'll. 2) They are also used to indicate plurals of figures, letters or words designated as a plural word like: a Wheel of Fortune statement: "There are three t's in that sentence." But where most of us make the errors in our writing, is when they are used in the possessive case when writing about who or what belongs to whom. "I left the girl's room." Meaning: I left the room of one girl. The room belonging to one girl. "I left the girls room." Incorrect! "The page's focal point was . . . . " Meaning: the focal point belonging to the page seven's layout! "The pages' focal point was . . . " Incorrect! This way it literally means: the focal point of all the pages (plural) was . . . ? did you really mean that all the pages of the magazine had one focal point? Anyway, you get the picture! Tip of the day: There is a notable exception to the rule! Never use an apostrophe with the possessive its. "It's" is actually a contraction meaning 'it is'. *See an example in the first part of this post.