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Step 2Don't Misuse the Apostrophe
Aside from misuse of capital letters, or more often the lack of any capital letters at all, the other common mistake that I see all over the internet is the abuse of the apostrophe. In English, the apostrophe is used to indicate the omission of letters and to indicate the possessiveness of many pronouns and all nouns. So, let's break that down:
Apostrophes are used in contractions such as don't, you're, it's, won't, can't, and many others. If you're going to use an apostrophe in this manner, it's going to be replacing one or more letters. If I were to rewrite that last sentence without using any contractions, it would look like this: "If you are going to use an apostrophe in this manner, it is going to be replacing one or more letters." In general, avoid using contractions and abbreviations, as it makes your writing look better and eliminates a common source of errors. To put it another way, don't use contractions.
Apostrophes are also used to indicate possessiveness. If you want to indicate that something belongs to someone, use an apostrophe followed by an "s" at the end of the noun or pronoun (note: not all pronouns use 's to indicate possessiveness). If you simply put an "s" without an apostrophe in hopes that you will indicate possessiveness, you will fail in most cases. An "s" alone at the end of a noun that does not normally end with an "s" indicates plurality. The fragment "my fathers house" has a much different meaning than "my father's house." In cases where a noun already ends in an "s," there are two schools of thought as to how to indicate possessiveness. The first method, which is favored when referring to the possessiveness of proper names is to tack on the "'s" as usual. An example of this can be seen when you want to refer to H. G. Wells's short story "The Country of the Blind." The second method is to just put an apostrophe on the end of the noun. This method can be seen when you want to refer to the blind citizens' treatment of Nunez in "The Country of the Blind."
A few things to note:
--In British English, the apostrophe or "single quote" is used to indicate speech in writing rather than the "double quote" used in American English.
--If you happen to be quoting something that has a quotation in it, the single quote is used to indicate the quotation within your quotation.
--"It's" means "it is," "its" is the non-gendered third-person possessive pronoun.
Apostrophes are used in contractions such as don't, you're, it's, won't, can't, and many others. If you're going to use an apostrophe in this manner, it's going to be replacing one or more letters. If I were to rewrite that last sentence without using any contractions, it would look like this: "If you are going to use an apostrophe in this manner, it is going to be replacing one or more letters." In general, avoid using contractions and abbreviations, as it makes your writing look better and eliminates a common source of errors. To put it another way, don't use contractions.
Apostrophes are also used to indicate possessiveness. If you want to indicate that something belongs to someone, use an apostrophe followed by an "s" at the end of the noun or pronoun (note: not all pronouns use 's to indicate possessiveness). If you simply put an "s" without an apostrophe in hopes that you will indicate possessiveness, you will fail in most cases. An "s" alone at the end of a noun that does not normally end with an "s" indicates plurality. The fragment "my fathers house" has a much different meaning than "my father's house." In cases where a noun already ends in an "s," there are two schools of thought as to how to indicate possessiveness. The first method, which is favored when referring to the possessiveness of proper names is to tack on the "'s" as usual. An example of this can be seen when you want to refer to H. G. Wells's short story "The Country of the Blind." The second method is to just put an apostrophe on the end of the noun. This method can be seen when you want to refer to the blind citizens' treatment of Nunez in "The Country of the Blind."
A few things to note:
--In British English, the apostrophe or "single quote" is used to indicate speech in writing rather than the "double quote" used in American English.
--If you happen to be quoting something that has a quotation in it, the single quote is used to indicate the quotation within your quotation.
--"It's" means "it is," "its" is the non-gendered third-person possessive pronoun.
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Also note, the punctuation goes inside both sets of quotation marks.