There
Their
They're

I did not learn this this week, but I see it bumbled all over the place. Facebook friends of mine keep me annoyed with these mix ups almost daily. These all are easy corrections to make and with simple notes to people in your life, hopefully these mistakes could disappear, at least from our immediate sphere. I do not expect to change the world, but I would hope we can all impact it in little ways around the globe.

At this point, these are probably obvious to people that signed up for an editing class, but let's dive in. The differences are simple so the explanations may be lacking of depth, but getting the information is important and the simpler the message the broader the spread.

There is a place. "Look over there, at the school, people are being carried away by massive insects." There is an adverb, that is used to reference a place in speech.

Their is a possessive determiner. "The couple do not want to believe, but their dog is covered in blood and the child is motionless." The use of their does not have to be so dark as that example, but it shows that the couple owns dog.

They're is a conjunction. "They're going on a trip to Florida because the looting is nice this time of year." They're is the combination of the words they and are.

This lesson should be easy to master, so spread it to all that massacre the usage of these words.