Confusion between its and it's

It's a well-known fact that this error is common. Its (the error's) origin is due to the fact that people think that this possessive needs an apostrophe, whereas, it does not require one. So remember: "it's" stands for "it is", and "its" stands for possession.

Use of apostrophe

Do not leave out the apostrophe ('). It becomes extremely difficult for readers to comprehend the writer's meaning. Use of apostrophe in ours, yours, and theirs is wrong. There is no need to put an apostrophe while writing the plural form of an abbreviation or a year, for e.g., COOs, IITs, 1990s. Use apostrophe only when it denotes possession, for e.g., the CEO's office or the CEOs' offices. Use apostrophes in the following situations:

• Indicate a possessive in a singular noun The boy's hat.
• But when the possessor is plural, then the apostrophe follows the 's' The companies' CEOs
• Indicate omission of figure or words The summer of '69 We can't go to B'lore

Numbers

• Spell out single numbers in full, from one to nine; use figures for 10 upwards.
• Always use figures with commas and decimal points. (Format: Use 1,
  When to Sell Your Structured Settlement
  A structured settlement often follows a life changing incident, whether it be positive or negative. Due to these circumstances, you may be faced with the need for a large lump sum payment rather than small monthly payments over a number of years. So, where do you turn? To a company that can buy your structured settlement from you and turn it into an immediate payment that you may use on whatever you see fit.Each individual has different reasons for wanting to sell their structured settlement, however, first you must decide if it is the right decision for you.The Benefits of Selling Your Structured SettlementA large portion of those who receive a structured settlement can benefit from selling it for a lump sum payment. The situations listed in this section represent possible circumstances of individuals that may get the most rewards from selling their structured settlement.· If you cannot wait to receive small, spread-out payments over a long period of time due to a dire financial situation or hefty medical bills and/or lawyer fees. Many of the situations that can bring about a structured settlement can also stick the individual with such obligations.· If you and your
  What will you do, if you find yourself sitting in a toilet in Japan with the following warning in front of you?

  "When you sit on the seat the cold water automatically flow. Wait for the 'off' lamp to wash. When you get on the seat 'standby' lamp starts flashing. If you press button upon seating you may have cold water spray."

  Panic for sure!

  Amazing how some of us do not pay even minuscule attention to what we write, and leave it on the intelligence of the reader to make sense out of it. No matter how refined in other respects the person may be, if he uses words wrongly and expresses himself in language not in accordance with the proper construction he has to take a back seat, while some one with much less ability gets the opportunity to come to the front because he can clothe his ideas in ready words and talk effectively.

  In order to speak and write any language correctly, it is important that the fundamental principles of the grammar be mastered, for no matter how much we may read of the best authors, no matter how much we may associate with and imitate the best speakers, if we do not know the underlying principles of the correct formation of sentences, we will be to a great extent like the parrot, that simply repeats what it hears without understanding the import of what is said.

  It is important that we write in a way that creates a favorable impression of our company. This means writing in a friendly tone and avoiding impersonal, bureaucratic language that might alienate the readers.

  The problem with most of us is that we are not open to criticism. Do not resent it but rather invite it and look upon those as friends who point out your defects in order to remedy them.

  As a content writer I spend days correcting all the commonest of errors. Through this article I wish to list the major English usage errors committed by us. I hope that the readers will try to keep these in mind and try not to commit them in their day-to-day communication activities.

  Company name usage

  The company name should always be quoted in full on any external literature. It should not be abbreviated. While quoting names of other firms, be careful about the name usage. Always use it when you refer to a company and not they.

  For example: XYZ is among the fastest growing IT companies in the world. It offers its services ...

  Shortened words

  Thanks to SMS, chat, and e-mail; language has got corrupted. Of course, programmers are used to writing in short forms. Some of the common short forms are: thru, condn, mgmt, ref, lib among others. Please write the full words instead of such short forms in all official communication.

  Use the word 'very' sparingly. If you write about a very fast printer, what do you mean by the word 'very?' It shows lack of accuracy. Instead, be specific and say -- this printer prints 30 pages in a minute! What is fast in India may be considered slow in Japan. While writing customer benefits in your case studies give actual numbers, for e.g., client's cost was reduced by 70% through our solution.

  Repetition of words

  Repetition of the same word in one sentence or adjacent sentence irritates the reader. Example: file the file in the file folder.

  Use of ampersand (&)

  We should not indiscriminately use "&" for "and". Avoid use of ampersands unless they are part of a name (e.g., AT&T) or accepted abbreviations (R&D). Do not provide white space between the letters.

  Use of bold

  Bold text is like shouting. You do this only when it is absolutely essential. Do not needlessly emphasize words by making them bold, try to italicize them instead. There are legitimate stylistic uses for bold. Use bold correctly.

  Use of Title Case

  Do not go on capitalizing all the technical terms; use title case only for proper nouns such as-names of products, technical processes, abbreviations, etc. Do not capitalize common nouns even if they seem very important to you.

  Punctuation

  We all have our own style of punctuation but the general rule is to use just enough for clarity. The most straightforward approach is to read a sentence aloud to yourself and add punctuation to explain the pauses you would make if you were speaking. Some rules are:

  • Use commas and periods inside quotations.
  • Use commas to separate elements in a series, and to separate ideas or clauses.
  • Use correct punctuation in abbreviations; e.g., for example i.e., that is etc., et cetera
  • Do not use multiple punctuation marks, for example: !!! ... ???, etc.
  Punctuation of lists and tables

  When you have a bulleted or numbered list, the grammar is a little different. If there are short phrases, a period would not be required. The worst mistake is when you make up a list with seven items - three with periods and four without periods. If you have long sentences in your list in which you have used other punctuation marks too, then it is advisable to put a period at the end of each sentence.

  Hyphen and dash usage

  Remember a hyphen is used to connect two words (web-enabled) while a dash is used to separate two words (Linda Simpson - the president's most trusted economic advisor - will resign her office during today's press conference.)

  Confusion between its and it's

  It's a well-known fact that this error is common. Its (the error's) origin is due to the fact that people think that this possessive needs an apostrophe, whereas, it does not require one. So remember: "it's" stands for "it is", and "its" stands for possession.

  Use of apostrophe

  Do not leave out the apostrophe ('). It becomes extremely difficult for readers to comprehend the writer's meaning. Use of apostrophe in ours, yours, and theirs is wrong. There is no need to put an apostrophe while writing the plural form of an abbreviation or a year, for e.g., COOs, IITs, 1990s. Use apostrophe only when it denotes possession, for e.g., the CEO's office or the CEOs' offices. Use apostrophes in the following situations:

  • Indicate a possessive in a singular noun The boy's hat.
  • But when the possessor is plural, then the apostrophe follows the 's' The companies' CEOs
  • Indicate omission of figure or words The summer of '69 We can't go to B'lore

  Numbers

  • Spell out single numbers in full, from one to nine; use figures for 10 upwards.
  • Always use figures with commas and decimal points. (Format: Use 1,0
    Boost your Search Engine Rankings with an RSS Feed
    I’m here to teach you about how RSS Feeds can boost traffic for your website. You may have heard of it, but I guarantee you are not harnessing the full power of the tool. RSS Feeds are very hot, and the marketing pro’s are getting their websites listed in Google within 2 to 3 days.What is an RSS Feed?RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Think of RSS this way: Whenever a writer who belongs to a syndicate writes a column, they don’t just write it for their local paper, every article goes up on the newswire and any paper who belongs to the syndicate can reprint it.First, you have to download an RSS Reader, a program that combines all the news online in one place. You can download a reader for free at www.RssReader.com. Once you’ve downloaded a reader, you can click any topic that suits your need, and only those topics will be delivered right to you.. Why would I put RSS on my website?An RSS feed can be thought of like this. Let’s take five news sources (Yahoo, MSN, CNN, ESPN, FOX). An RSS reader would scan all five news sources and take each headline and create a summary of the article. Now, you can actually sort the news stories and have only the ones you are interested in del
    d.

    It is important that we write in a way that creates a favorable impression of our company. This means writing in a friendly tone and avoiding impersonal, bureaucratic language that might alienate the readers.

    The problem with most of us is that we are not open to criticism. Do not resent it but rather invite it and look upon those as friends who point out your defects in order to remedy them.

    As a content writer I spend days correcting all the commonest of errors. Through this article I wish to list the major English usage errors committed by us. I hope that the readers will try to keep these in mind and try not to commit them in their day-to-day communication activities.

    Company name usage

    The company name should always be quoted in full on any external literature. It should not be abbreviated. While quoting names of other firms, be careful about the name usage. Always use it when you refer to a company and not they.

    For example: XYZ is among the fastest growing IT companies in the world. It offers its services ...

    Shortened words

    Thanks to SMS, chat, and e-mail; language has got corrupted. Of course, programmers are used to writing in short forms. Some of the common short forms are: thru, condn, mgmt, ref, lib among others. Please write the full words instead of such short forms in all official communication.

    Use the word 'very' sparingly. If you write about a very fast printer, what do you mean by the word 'very?' It shows lack of accuracy. Instead, be specific and say -- this printer prints 30 pages in a minute! What is fast in India may be considered slow in Japan. While writing customer benefits in your case studies give actual numbers, for e.g., client's cost was reduced by 70% through our solution.

    Repetition of words

    Repetition of the same word in one sentence or adjacent sentence irritates the reader. Example: file the file in the file folder.

    Use of ampersand (&)

    We should not indiscriminately use "&" for "and". Avoid use of ampersands unless they are part of a name (e.g., AT&T) or accepted abbreviations (R&D). Do not provide white space between the letters.

    Use of bold

    Bold text is like shouting. You do this only when it is absolutely essential. Do not needlessly emphasize words by making them bold, try to italicize them instead. There are legitimate stylistic uses for bold. Use bold correctly.

    Use of Title Case

    Do not go on capitalizing all the technical terms; use title case only for proper nouns such as-names of products, technical processes, abbreviations, etc. Do not capitalize common nouns even if they seem very important to you.

    Punctuation

    We all have our own style of punctuation but the general rule is to use just enough for clarity. The most straightforward approach is to read a sentence aloud to yourself and add punctuation to explain the pauses you would make if you were speaking. Some rules are:

    • Use commas and periods inside quotations.
    • Use commas to separate elements in a series, and to separate ideas or clauses.
    • Use correct punctuation in abbreviations; e.g., for example i.e., that is etc., et cetera
    • Do not use multiple punctuation marks, for example: !!! ... ???, etc.
    Punctuation of lists and tables

    When you have a bulleted or numbered list, the grammar is a little different. If there are short phrases, a period would not be required. The worst mistake is when you make up a list with seven items - three with periods and four without periods. If you have long sentences in your list in which you have used other punctuation marks too, then it is advisable to put a period at the end of each sentence.

    Hyphen and dash usage

    Remember a hyphen is used to connect two words (web-enabled) while a dash is used to separate two words (Linda Simpson - the president's most trusted economic advisor - will resign her office during today's press conference.)

    Confusion between its and it's

    It's a well-known fact that this error is common. Its (the error's) origin is due to the fact that people think that this possessive needs an apostrophe, whereas, it does not require one. So remember: "it's" stands for "it is", and "its" stands for possession.

    Use of apostrophe

    Do not leave out the apostrophe ('). It becomes extremely difficult for readers to comprehend the writer's meaning. Use of apostrophe in ours, yours, and theirs is wrong. There is no need to put an apostrophe while writing the plural form of an abbreviation or a year, for e.g., COOs, IITs, 1990s. Use apostrophe only when it denotes possession, for e.g., the CEO's office or the CEOs' offices. Use apostrophes in the following situations:

    • Indicate a possessive in a singular noun The boy's hat.
    • But when the possessor is plural, then the apostrophe follows the 's' The companies' CEOs
    • Indicate omission of figure or words The summer of '69 We can't go to B'lore

    Numbers

    • Spell out single numbers in full, from one to nine; use figures for 10 upwards.
    • Always use figures with commas and decimal points. (Format: Use 1,
      Are Professionals Really Knowledge Workers
      It is considered that professionals in our society are knowledge workers. Are Doctors, Accountants and Lawyers really knowledge workers?Well in reality not ALL professionals are knowledge workers, but they work in the areas we consider knowledge based. Many of these professions are actually parasites in locked down domains ball hogging information from others. Many time lawyers work very hard to hide the laws, government forms and access.If all these professionals are knowledge workers, why then lets teach them how to think then? It would be good if we use the Human Knowledge MindMap to teach these folks to think. Maybe they might pull their own weight rather than living off the creme.Being a professional is only a label enabling the worker to charge more than they are worth generally and calling them knowledge workers is a justification to continue. Although 15-20% probably are worth it.Now then, William Sheridan, Founder of The Human Knowledge MindMap states; “They are all knowledge workers, but most don't have a clear overview of the basis of knowledge skills for knowledge work.”http://www3.sympatico.
      e the full words instead of such short forms in all official communication.

      Use the word 'very' sparingly. If you write about a very fast printer, what do you mean by the word 'very?' It shows lack of accuracy. Instead, be specific and say -- this printer prints 30 pages in a minute! What is fast in India may be considered slow in Japan. While writing customer benefits in your case studies give actual numbers, for e.g., client's cost was reduced by 70% through our solution.

      Repetition of words

      Repetition of the same word in one sentence or adjacent sentence irritates the reader. Example: file the file in the file folder.

      Use of ampersand (&)

      We should not indiscriminately use "&" for "and". Avoid use of ampersands unless they are part of a name (e.g., AT&T) or accepted abbreviations (R&D). Do not provide white space between the letters.

      Use of bold

      Bold text is like shouting. You do this only when it is absolutely essential. Do not needlessly emphasize words by making them bold, try to italicize them instead. There are legitimate stylistic uses for bold. Use bold correctly.

      Use of Title Case

      Do not go on capitalizing all the technical terms; use title case only for proper nouns such as-names of products, technical processes, abbreviations, etc. Do not capitalize common nouns even if they seem very important to you.

      Punctuation

      We all have our own style of punctuation but the general rule is to use just enough for clarity. The most straightforward approach is to read a sentence aloud to yourself and add punctuation to explain the pauses you would make if you were speaking. Some rules are:

      • Use commas and periods inside quotations.
      • Use commas to separate elements in a series, and to separate ideas or clauses.
      • Use correct punctuation in abbreviations; e.g., for example i.e., that is etc., et cetera
      • Do not use multiple punctuation marks, for example: !!! ... ???, etc.
      Punctuation of lists and tables

      When you have a bulleted or numbered list, the grammar is a little different. If there are short phrases, a period would not be required. The worst mistake is when you make up a list with seven items - three with periods and four without periods. If you have long sentences in your list in which you have used other punctuation marks too, then it is advisable to put a period at the end of each sentence.

      Hyphen and dash usage

      Remember a hyphen is used to connect two words (web-enabled) while a dash is used to separate two words (Linda Simpson - the president's most trusted economic advisor - will resign her office during today's press conference.)

      Confusion between its and it's

      It's a well-known fact that this error is common. Its (the error's) origin is due to the fact that people think that this possessive needs an apostrophe, whereas, it does not require one. So remember: "it's" stands for "it is", and "its" stands for possession.

      Use of apostrophe

      Do not leave out the apostrophe ('). It becomes extremely difficult for readers to comprehend the writer's meaning. Use of apostrophe in ours, yours, and theirs is wrong. There is no need to put an apostrophe while writing the plural form of an abbreviation or a year, for e.g., COOs, IITs, 1990s. Use apostrophe only when it denotes possession, for e.g., the CEO's office or the CEOs' offices. Use apostrophes in the following situations:

      • Indicate a possessive in a singular noun The boy's hat.
      • But when the possessor is plural, then the apostrophe follows the 's' The companies' CEOs
      • Indicate omission of figure or words The summer of '69 We can't go to B'lore

      Numbers

      • Spell out single numbers in full, from one to nine; use figures for 10 upwards.
      • Always use figures with commas and decimal points. (Format: Use 1,
        Perseverance is Crucial to Your Success!
        "Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody." Henry Wadsworth LongfellowUnfortunately, perseverance is one of the most difficult character traits to develop, maybe even more so in the Network Marketing arena. It is easy to become discouraged when all of the time and effort put into the business doesn't seem to be yielding any results. However, if you're certain that you're on the right path, then you must overcome the feelings of despair and forge ahead.So, how do you know you're on the right path? I recommend taking a close look at what you're doing and compare it to what the successful Network Marketers are doing. Building a business takes time and effort, and every successful Network Marketer will tell you that the struggle is worth it.None of these people started out at the top. All of them - every single one - paid their dues to get where they are, and are now enjoying great success simply because they stuck to it when the going got tough. You can enjoy the same success if you have the courage to persevere in the face of adversity."I do not think there is any other quality so essential to su
        ons, etc. Do not capitalize common nouns even if they seem very important to you.

        Punctuation

        We all have our own style of punctuation but the general rule is to use just enough for clarity. The most straightforward approach is to read a sentence aloud to yourself and add punctuation to explain the pauses you would make if you were speaking. Some rules are:

        • Use commas and periods inside quotations.
        • Use commas to separate elements in a series, and to separate ideas or clauses.
        • Use correct punctuation in abbreviations; e.g., for example i.e., that is etc., et cetera
        • Do not use multiple punctuation marks, for example: !!! ... ???, etc.
        Punctuation of lists and tables

        When you have a bulleted or numbered list, the grammar is a little different. If there are short phrases, a period would not be required. The worst mistake is when you make up a list with seven items - three with periods and four without periods. If you have long sentences in your list in which you have used other punctuation marks too, then it is advisable to put a period at the end of each sentence.

        Hyphen and dash usage

        Remember a hyphen is used to connect two words (web-enabled) while a dash is used to separate two words (Linda Simpson - the president's most trusted economic advisor - will resign her office during today's press conference.)

        Confusion between its and it's

        It's a well-known fact that this error is common. Its (the error's) origin is due to the fact that people think that this possessive needs an apostrophe, whereas, it does not require one. So remember: "it's" stands for "it is", and "its" stands for possession.

        Use of apostrophe

        Do not leave out the apostrophe ('). It becomes extremely difficult for readers to comprehend the writer's meaning. Use of apostrophe in ours, yours, and theirs is wrong. There is no need to put an apostrophe while writing the plural form of an abbreviation or a year, for e.g., COOs, IITs, 1990s. Use apostrophe only when it denotes possession, for e.g., the CEO's office or the CEOs' offices. Use apostrophes in the following situations:

        • Indicate a possessive in a singular noun The boy's hat.
        • But when the possessor is plural, then the apostrophe follows the 's' The companies' CEOs
        • Indicate omission of figure or words The summer of '69 We can't go to B'lore

        Numbers

        • Spell out single numbers in full, from one to nine; use figures for 10 upwards.
        • Always use figures with commas and decimal points. (Format: Use 1,
          Helping You in Selecting Best Home Based Business Opportunity for You
          We find home based business opportunities almost everywhere. You can capture almost any pastime and twist it into a big business. If you have a unique talent you can also use that as the source for your home based business. A home based business can range from gardening to paralegal services. If you have your unique skill, training or hobby, it can simply be turned into a money making thought.It is that type of business which you can run from your home. We may have many ideas of starting our own home based business but at the same time we don’t know appropriately how to execute it.When the people have money they spend in some or other kind of business, travel, and child care but they will not spend their money on special apparatus for a home workplace they observe that it really does pay to work at home. Home based business is slowly becoming the way to work throughout the ages.You may think that come up with a home based business is complex, but it isn’t. Once you recognize what particular ability or skill you have, you can put up that into a business. For instance, if you are a first-rate gardener you may try growing specialty herbs and selling them at a local farmers market. It is a matter o
          rusted economic advisor - will resign her office during today's press conference.)

          Confusion between its and it's

          It's a well-known fact that this error is common. Its (the error's) origin is due to the fact that people think that this possessive needs an apostrophe, whereas, it does not require one. So remember: "it's" stands for "it is", and "its" stands for possession.

          Use of apostrophe

          Do not leave out the apostrophe ('). It becomes extremely difficult for readers to comprehend the writer's meaning. Use of apostrophe in ours, yours, and theirs is wrong. There is no need to put an apostrophe while writing the plural form of an abbreviation or a year, for e.g., COOs, IITs, 1990s. Use apostrophe only when it denotes possession, for e.g., the CEO's office or the CEOs' offices. Use apostrophes in the following situations:

          • Indicate a possessive in a singular noun The boy's hat.
          • But when the possessor is plural, then the apostrophe follows the 's' The companies' CEOs
          • Indicate omission of figure or words The summer of '69 We can't go to B'lore

          Numbers

          • Spell out single numbers in full, from one to nine; use figures for 10 upwards.
          • Always use figures with commas and decimal points. (Format: Use 1,000 separators - x,xxx,xxx.xx). It is preferable to use M or K for millions or thousands instead of many zeroes. Spell out large numbers if necessary; e.g., one million instead of 1,000,000. Try to use either all numerals or all spelled numbers for a list of numbers.
          • Spell out ordinal numbers: first, second, third. Do not add ly to them. For example, firstly, secondly, etc.
          • Spell out and hyphenate common fractions; e.g., three-fourth share.
          Dates
          • Write dates with the number only and not with 'th' 'nd' or 'rd'; e.g., February 28 rather than February 28th.
          • Use MM-DD-YYYY format wherever you need to document a full date - May 8, 2003.
          • Use month and year for documents that change frequently; e.g., collateral material - May 2003.
          Articles

          The use of articles "a", "an", and "the" was taught to everybody in school! However, very few people pay attention to it. Use of "an" is not all that simple because the sound of the vowel comes into play. Should you say "a Unix machine" or "an Unix machine?" Should you say "a unique idea" or "an unique idea?" A unique idea would be to write about a Unix machine!

          Avoid complex and unusual words

          There is absolutely no need to use words of "learned length and thundering sound." Short, simple words are understood by all and remove doubts. If you have to use a technical term that your reader may not understand, explain it briefly in non-technical language.

          Abbreviations and acronyms

          Do not abbreviate company names, unless they are well known and used regularly. The first time you write an abbreviation or an acronym, you should always write the name in full with the abbreviation or acronym in parentheses afterwards. After that, you can abbreviate it. This includes abbreviations that may be very familiar to you, but not necessarily to your readers; e.g., enterprise application integration (EAI); straight through processing (STP), and technical application request (TAR).

          Use active voice

          Most verbs can be used in the active or the passive. By using active verbs, you will keep the word order simple and avoid using extra words. Try to use verbs in place of nouns. Many nouns are formed from verbs, such as completion and provision. Using the verb is often more direct than using the noun. Cut out nouns where a single verb will do.

          Do not switch tenses very often

          I have often come across content in which every third sentence has a different tense. If you start writing a document in past tense, then stick to it. It creates confusion if tenses are not followed correctly.

          Proofread for accuracy

          After you finish writing the first draft, let the article rest for some time. Print a hard copy and go over it with a fine toothcomb for simple errors such as the ones listed above.