Look at That Red Face! He Should Have Used Coppertone
The offices of Happening are always open to the public. Today we were fortunate to be visited by a man from our great city. He had a lot on his mind.
“What’s the deal with basic spelling in this town?” he exclaimed. “Once again, a producer of an HTG film has misspelled words… right on the opening page of his film! Forget about the grammar. Forget about the punctuation. But, week after bloody week, there’s one word in particlular that’s not spelled correctly in the opening of films. It’s enough to drive me bonkers.”
What is that word?
“The word is its” the man continued. “Its. Basic, simple its. The possessive of the word it. Producers, web architects and so on keep spelling it it’s. WRONG. It’s is a contraction of it is. It is not the possessive of it.
“Example… ‘It’s a lovely day.’ That means ‘It is a lovely day.’ ‘A movie is the property of its writer’ indicates a possessive. Sure, the apostrophe is confusing. But it’s basic English. It’s so aggravating.”
The man had just a couple more things to say before he left the Happening offices.
“Producers should Google sites on how to distinguish its/it’s, your/you’re, there/their/they’re and so forth. It sure would keep my blood pressure in check. And it would make their presentations better. Thanks.”
Could it be true? could Matt Marcotte be back in town? It’s got to be true.
Comment by Tommo — March 30, 2008 @ 8:29 am