it's, its', let's, lets'

Rants are good, they keep us moving. To not rant once in a while is to not care one way or the other. Take care. Vern

Did you read the article?

MT

I’m reading Turow’s Personal Injuries now. Apparently, he likes to have it both ways. He eschews the apostrophe in goin’, havin’, etc., but still puts the comma in before a sentence-ending “too.” Old school and, apparently trendy, apostrophe avoidance.

Rules change, and they should. Internet and dumpster used to be capitalized, and now often aren’t, but there’s still some who do honor the brands. (There is a transition period!) Foreign phrases used to require italics, but increasingly, they’ve become a part of English usage and are in normal font. I often have to consult the CMOS or the AP Stylebook to see what the latest consensus is. Writing has changed a lot since I learned the “rules” in high school!

Marilyn, I grew up with the double space between sentences, but that’s dead, dear, and I’m living with that just fine.

You should try a French computer keyboard. You'd be amazed how much that will slow you down. I spend more time on the backspace key than any other. I'd splurge for something new, but I have too many bills to pay.

I think creative writers are messing with things because they aren't working.

I like these quotes from the article:
In contractions like hes, shes, youre, theyre, and its, there are ones no one gets wrong, and there are ones that are gotten completely wrong all the time (theyre/their/there, youre/your). Either way, people still know what the writer means. Every. Single. Time. The apostrophe makes no difference.

In Ill, youll, hell, shell, well, itll, and theyll, there are some apparent points of confusion. “Ill do it if hell do it and shell do it” might seem like odd English referring to sickness, Hades, and mollusks. But odds are very good you understood it anyway.

And in possessives? Thats where people get them wrong most often, and yet we always know what they mean.

&

3. Many apostrophes are really only there for condescension
Apostrophes do have one consistent function: The grammar griper brigade likes to use them as the tips on their cats-o-nine-tails. Theyre excellent tools for condescension. Dont tell me theres no classism in terms like “greengrocers apostrophe” (for apostrophes in plurals). Such agitation over a little mark that conveys nothing new—other, evidently, than, “This person doesnt know how to use apostrophes.” Its a fashion infraction on the level of wearing white after Labor Day or socks with sandals.

In fact, the apostrophe in the possessive forms is there only because some people wanted to show their superior knowledge. It wasnt there originally. The possessive s in modern English is descended from one of several Old English forms: es, e, an, and a.

MT

I really get tired of hearing how lazy we are today. OMG- we work harder and more hours than any previous generation. Multi-tasking has become a given in just about every industry. I long for the time to pontificate over the correct use of a comma and an apostrophe. I am one of those on this site that invariably put the damn comma in the wrong place. Sue me. I try. There are so many rules, that sometimes I just put it where I feel I want a pause. OOPS!
I learned that when a word ends in an "s" you just add the apostrophe to the end- I get my chapters marked up that it should be 's. It looks inelegant to me and causes me to hiss when I read the words. So I'm going back to just leaving it s'. I'm sorry if that makes me lazy. But Christ, I work 14 hours a day at my job and write to relax and enjoy myself. It's fun. I'm on this website to improve. But I don't need the experts treating me like I'm ignorant, either.
Thank you, Memphis! I also am a huge fan of Sam Clemens. (Or is that: I, also, am a huge fan of Sam Clemens.)
CJ

Listening is the new reading. I don't remember the last time I read a book. Even on this site, I click the reader view option. It has a voice feature and I just listen to the members' work. My point is, when you're listening punctuation does not matter.

When you're listening, punctuation matters the most. Written language mimics the spoken language. When we talk, we pause. Sometimes we make short pauses, sometimes, long ones. Commas and full-stops perform the same function. A good automatic reader should be programmed to respect the punctuation, otherwise the story will make no sense.

The purpose of grammar is to standardise written language  and make it understandable, thus serving as a communication mean. Otherwise, written language would be impossible to understand. Both written and spoken language evolve, and that is right, but if any of them evolve too fast you end up with something that is no longer understandable. For practical purposes, a new language.

If people start writing the way they prefer, for example not using apostrophes, while it may be easy to recognise some words, it may be difficult to recognise others--unless everybody who speaks English accepts the change at once and starts writing in that way. This is almost impossible, because, unlike French, Portuguese, and Spanish, there is no international organisation, whose authority is widely accepted, ruling how the language should be written, recognising new trends, and communicating the new trends to every Spanish, French, or Portuguese speaker.

For example: all of you who have studied Spanish know this language uses graphical accents over vowels to indicate the strong syllable in a word,  like this: á, é í, ó, and ú. This is important because the meaning of a lot of words changes depending on the accented syllable. "Lastima" (emphasis on the "i") and "lástima" (emphasis on the "a") mean different things. "Lastima", means "it hurts", "lástima" means pity.

Recently, the Spanish Academy decided to eliminate a number of graphical accents in words where there is no possible confusion, thus simplifying the grammar. "Fué" means 2went", the strong vowel is the "e". But there's no possible confusion because there is no other word like that. So, after 2010,  "fue" is written without the graphical accent. Once the Academy published the new grammar rules, every Spanish speaker started writing these and the rest of the modified words without the graphical accent. Editors and publishers immediately adopted the new rule. Schools started teaching the new rule ipso-facto.

In English, this is not possible, for there is no "worldwide" authority. There are some authorities, like the Chicago Manual of Style, but to follow their mandates optional. Take the Oxford comma, there are critics and followers, but no rule. Brits write "recognise" and Americans "recognize", and both are considered right. English standardisation is poor and, with enough time, it may end up like Latin, giving birth to a number of new languages similar, but different, from the original one. Whether that is good or bad is still to be seen. It'll be good if the process fosters better communication, it'll be bad if it hinders communication.

Kiss,
Gacela