This writing tip may seem very elementary, my friends. If you've got this down pat, good for you. Just skim this email or delete it and pat yourself on the back. For those who aren't 100% sure, don't beat yourself up. I've edited hundreds of books, and I see people making this mistake every day of the week.
Today we are talking about it's, its, and its’. I know, it
seems very simplistic, but bear with me. It's is a contraction. We use an
apostrophe to merge the word it with the verb is, and we get it’s. Here's how
we use it: "It's raining out today." Or “Jean-Pierre wants to go to the movies, but
it's too late." So we have it's as a stand-in for it is.
Its is a pronoun. It's gender-neutral. Here's how we use it:
"The dog wagged its tail." Now, if that's your dog, or if you are
close enough to the dog to see the gender, you could use his or her, but if we
don't know the gender, or if the object is nonhuman, we say it and use its
(e.g., "The cabin was appealing with its cozy exterior.")
Its' is not a word. Just trying to see if you're awake!
Be careful with spell check in Microsoft Word. Spell check will almost always pick up this common mistake when we misspell the contraction; however, it will often flag "its" as incorrect when it's used properly, so it’s a good thing to memorize this rule.
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