(untitled)

I know it's small potatoes in the scope of the illiteracy crisis as a whole, but I'm seeing more and more people misuse "it's" and it's making me despair a bit. I'm not even talking about in casual communication, I've seen it in written works intended for public display, and it makes me so sad that people don't know or don't care or both. For reference: "its" without an apostrophe is possessive. "It wanted its food". "It's" with an apostrophe is only correct as a shortening of "it is" or "it has". "It's hungry". I know the rules of orthography are silly and arbitrary and this one in particular is inconsistent with how other possessives are written, but however arbitrary the rules are, following them still conveys that you the writer care about your work and that you read other peoples'. Petty and pointless[1] rule violations suggest to the reader (and most strongly to exactly those readers who do the most reading) that not only do you not take pride in your work, but you don't engage…