[thelist] Grammar tips

Wolf Duby Wolf.Duby at PACCAR.com
Mon Jul 17 11:55:49 CDT 2000


Erica said
>
>its = possessive
>it's = it is (contraction)
>

An easy way I've found to remember this--

None of the personal pronouns take an apostrophe:

 hers
 his
 its
 ours
 theirs
 whose


I have seen a lot of people argue that it doesn't matter whether the grammar
is correct as long as the message gets across. While I wouldn't go so far as
to claim that the medium is the message, it does seem clear that there is no
more efficient way to undermine what one is saying than to appear ignorant
in the fundamental use of language.

It's a matter of image and trust. If I buy some product--be it a program or
some electronic gizmo--and the user manual is filled with errors, why should
I believe that any more care was taken with the product itself than was
taken with the manual? If someone argues a point of politics, religion, or
CSS (is there a difference?) and the text is riddled with run-on sentences
or misspellings, the persuasiveness of any argument used is diminished.
<shrug> Maybe it shouldn't be, but, to use another analogy, I'm more likely
to trust a mechanic whose shop exhibits some kind of organization than one
who can't find the right-size screwdriver or wrench.


Despite the proliferation of pretty graphics, the Web is still a medium of
written language. No one is asking for Shakespeare, but it's worth the small
effort it takes to get it right.


=======================================================
    "I hate quotations!"                 Wolf Lahti 
      -- Ralph Waldo Emerson      Allen, Washington 
-------------------------------------------------------
                 wolf.duby at paccar.com 
=======================================================





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