2-1-05 Your/You're

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="042d05a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Big Ring Media Team, Inc.</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Ring Media Team, Inc."><B>home</B></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="043d2123.jpg"> <div> Click on this link to return to <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Date">Word Watch by Date</A>.</div> <div> Click on this link to go to <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Subject">Word Watch by Subject</A>.</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>2-1-05 Your/You're</I></div> <div> Another especially troublesome pair of homophones was brought to our attention by a loyal Word Watch reader: “your” and “you're.” It's not that we err in meaning. We all know that “your” is a second person possessive, and that “you're” is a contraction of “you are.” But this is the type of thing that flies below the spell check radar and often sneaks into usage.</div> <div> Our recommendation here is the same as it is for most copyediting. First, treat your words like wine. Give them a little time to breathe before you judge their merit. What you've written today you can proof tomorrow or, better yet, next week. Second, bring another pair of eyes to bear on the text. We often subconsciously fill in what is missing or correct what is wrong in what we've written. We know what it's <I>supposed</I> to say, and we often gloss over the faults. Those faults are usually noticed by another reader.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>