AP Style Guide: Journalistic Standards for Writing, Lecture notes of Technical Writing

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Guide to

AP Style

Associated Press in Brief

 Associated Press founded in 1848

 Cooperative effort among six New York newspapers pooling

resources for gathering international news

 Currently world's single largest news organization (over 3700

employees in 121 countries)

 More than a billion people read, hear or see AP news daily

 The Associated Press Stylebook , first published in 1977

Why AP Style?

1. Accurate
2. Clear
3. Tight
4. Neutral (non-offensive)

Numbers

 Spell out:  Whole numbers below 10  Numerals that start a sentence.  Example: Twenty-seven detainees were released yesterday.  For large numbers use hyphen to connect word ending in y to another word:  Example: twenty-one or seventy-six thousand

 Use figures:  For 10 and above.  For all ages and percentages (even less than 10).

PLACES: States

 Spell out names of states unless preceded by a city,

county or military base name.

 Spell out Alaska & Hawaii and states with five or fewer letters.

 For second references, abbreviate all state names.

Examples: I lived in Oklahoma.

I lived in Tulsa, Okla. I lived in Iowa. I lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

TIME: Days vs. dates?

 Always use numerals without st , nd , rd or th in dates_._

 Avoid using yesterday, today and tomorrow

 story publication could be delayed

 When writing about events use months and dates

 Example: " April 30 " and " June 5 ."

 When referring to a month, day and year, set off year with commas.

 Example: Aug. 20, 1964, was the day they had all been waiting for.

TIME: Years

 Add an "s" to first year in the decade.

 Years are never spelled out.

 Even at beginning of sentence use figure.

Example: In the 1960s, I did a lot of things I

don't remember.

1968 was a good year, I'm told.

TIME: a.m. vs. p.m.

 Recognize “8 p.m. tonight” is redundant.

Write 8 p.m. Monday.

 Use figures except for noon and midnight

 Write time of day like this: 2:30 a.m. or 8:

p.m.

TITLES: People

 Capitalize formal titles before a name

 do not separate title from name by a comma.

 Titles after a name or standing alone are ALMOST

NEVER capitalized (exceptions for nobility—see AP Stylebook)

Examples: I saw President Obama.

He met Prince Charles.

Dr. Mojock, LSCC president, attended the meeting.

TITLES: Places

 General compass directions should be lowercase

 Example: The warm front is moving east.

 Capitalize names of U.S. regions

 Example: The Northeast depends on the Midwest for its food supply.

 NOTE

 Best reference for correct spelling/punctuation of place names: “U.S. Postal Service Directory of Post Offices.”

 Best reference for foreign geographic names: “Webster’s New World College Dictionary.”

A Guide to Punctuation

 Comma (,)

 Do not put a comma before conjunction in a simple series.  Example: John, Paul, George and Ringo; red, white and blue.

 Use a comma to set off a person's hometown and age.  Example: Jane Doe, Framingham, was absent.  Joe Blow, 34, was arrested yesterday.

 Place a comma before and after the following:

 A year, if it follows a month and date.  Example: I was born on Nov. 6, 1958, in Madison, Wis.

 A state, if it follows a city or county name.  Example: I was born in Madison, Wis., on Nov. 6, 1958.

 An appositive (a word or phrase that says same thing as a word or phrase next to it)  Example: I saw my boss, John Smith, in the hall. (My boss and John Smith are identical.)

 Hyphen (-)

 Use a hyphen for compound adjectives before the noun:  Example: well-known actor, full-time job, 20-year sentence

 Do not use when compound modifier occurs after verb:  Example: The actor was well known. Her job became full time. He was sentenced to 20 years.

 Period (.)

 Use a single space after period at end of sentence.  Do not put space between initials:  C.S. Lewis; G.K. Chesterton

“Quotations” in the news

 Quote marks indicate exact wording.

 They tell reader, "This is exactly what was said."

 Quote marks always appear outside punctuation.

 When a full-sentence quotation is introduced or followed by attribution, place a comma between them.

 Quotations that are questions only need a question mark.

 Example: “ Did he really say that?” he asked.