It's Its, Not It's

There is a huge, dumb monster looming all over the published world.

It's the ITS MONSTER.

Its greatest failure is the proper use of "its" and it's".

The apostrophe is its weapon of choice. It's the tiny character that it sticks in between the "t" and the "s", and it almost never gets it right. The ITS MONSTER can be killed. It's got to be killed. The way to do this is to remember when the apostrophe is included, and when it's not.

It's not really that hard:

If the "it" you're talking about possesses something, then it's "its."
If the "it" you're talking about is, or has done something, then it's "it's."

The apostrophe has been used only to form a contraction. The possessive apostrophe, as in "John's car or Mary's dress," is never used with "its." Ever. Never ever. NEVER.

(Well, okay, maybe if you wanted to refer to the word "its." In that case, something that belonged to "its" could be its', but forget that; pay no attention to that.)

It's "its."