Its Its Its Its Its Its Its Its

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Its Its Its Its Its Its Its Its

• Moira Peelo
• Student Learning Development Centre

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(No Transcript)
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Misusing its and its produces particular
punctuation rage

• It is worth learning to limit the number of its
  mistakes you make because the its problem stirs
  punctuation rage in markers.
• That rage is well beyond the size of the word and
  what it merits and suggesting that the marker
  gets a life doesnt seem to help.

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ITS
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its its its its its
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its its its its its its its

• In academic writing, there should be no
  apostrophe in its
• Its its its its
• So its should always be spelt with just 3
  letters
• Its its its its its its its

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3 letters - its
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Thats not true, surely?

• Well, academic writing is quite formal. So its
  is only correctly used if it shows when something
  belongs
• e.g. the dog wagged its tail

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Academic writing tends to be formal
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So what?

• Putting an apostrophe in its means you are
  running two words together - this is a more
  informal use of language

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Apostrophe
,
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When do I use its with an apostrophe?

• In academic writing its can only be used if
  you are quoting directly from someone elses
  writing or words.
• This is because its means there are two words
  in one (it is, shortened to its). This is too
  informal for most academic writing.

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Use its, eradicate its

• Use find on Microsoft Word to locate when you
  have used its, and change to its unless it is
  a direct quotation from the literature or from
  speech.

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Its its in more detail

• its is a possessive pronoun

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Pronoun? Possessive?

• A pronoun stands in place of a noun - a noun
  names an object, e.g. table, chair, beauty
• e.g. The dog wags its tail.
• Possessive indicates ownership. So, we know that
  the dog wags its own tail, and we know this
  without repeating dog endlessly.
• E.g. It is unusual for a racehorse to clean its
  own stable.
• E.g. The building stood in its own grounds

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Other possessive pronouns...

• mine
• hers
• his
• ours
• yours
• theirs

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So what is the rule?

• Possessive pronouns do not need an apostrophe -
  neither to show ownership nor to show a letter is
  missing
• So possessive pronouns ending in s do not need
  apostrophes - hers, its, his, ours, yours and
  theirs do not need an apostrophe

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its its its
It is It is It is It is It is It is
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Its a contraction

• It is a fine day
• Its a fine day
• Its a fine sight watching a dog wag its tail
• its it is
• its has four letters - including one that is
  missing

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4 letters - its
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Apostrophe - in place of a missing letter
,
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Its

• Its is a contraction - two words run together
• This is common in speech, e-mails, text messaging
  and more relaxed modes of communication
• The apostrophe indicates that a letter is missing

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The apostrophe goes in the missing letters
place...

• Doesnt does not
• thats that is
• cant cannot
• dont do not
• havent have not
• its it is
• youre you are