I'm a bit picky when it comes to grammar, so please don't take offense to this thread. I've noticed that some people on this board are not using apostrophes properly, so I wrote down some helpful hints:
1. Apostrophes exist for a reason. If there is no reason for you to use an apostrophe, don't put one in.
2. Contractions use apostrophes: don't, can't wouldn't, shouldn't - the apostrophe indicates that letters are missing, so it is also used in words like ma'am (madam).
3. Apostrophes are used to indicate possession: Steve's taco, Jess' radio, states' residents. In the "Steve's taco" example, the s follows the apostrophe because there is only one person doing the possessing. Notice, however, that in the "Jess' radio" example, the apostrophe follows the apostrophe because "Jess" ends in an s even when singular. In the "states' residents" example, the placement of the apostrophe indicates that we are talking abou residents from multiple states. If they were all from one state, it would be "state's residents".
4. The toughest word to remember is [its vs. it's]. In this instance, the apostrophe is used in the contraction [It's a beautiful day], but is
not used in the possessive [The dog chased its tail], even though this is in violation of the rules above.
If you read through this whole thing, more power to you. You must care about grammar as much as I do!
