Its or It's--Which Is It?

When writing quickly, sometimes it's easy for us to get confused about the difference between it's and its, as in the following example:


"Explore eyewitnesses throughout American history in the treasures from the National Archives, experience the landmark show Dallas and it's impact on television . . . ."

The sentence should read "its impact on television," since the impact that Dallas had on television is being discussed.

When we're looking over our work or someone else's and there is an it's/its problem, we need to look carefully at the context to see if the to be verb is is in use or if there is possession, as in the above example.

Apostrophe Problem

Sometimes people have problems with apostrophe placement. One common problem occurs when people use an apostrophe when they really want to indicate plurality, as in the case of VCR's instead of VCRs: VCR's On Sale This Weekend! instead of the correct VCRs On Sale This Weekend! This problem is very common, especially in advertising. Please pay attention!